Reciprocity

To specify different modes of individual children's social integration, this study examined qualitative and quantitative aspects characterizing distinct types of peer relationships. Subjects were 255 children in grades 2 through 5 of an inner-city primary school in Berlin, Germany. Subjects were individually interviewed at school about their friends, and were asked to nominate all children with whom they had contact outside school. A subsample of 116 children and their parents were additionally interviewed at home about further characteristics of their friendships, their concept of friendship, the quality of the parent-child relationship, and other characteristics of family life. Three descriptive scales (assistance, fun, and absence of quarreling) were developed and confirmed by factor analysis to be different dimensions of relationship descriptions. Analysis revealed that children described same-se