Forming, Losing, Renewing, and Replaeing Friendships: Applying Temporal Parameters to the Assessment of Children's Friendship Experiences

over time in a summer camp to examine whether such events are valid indicators of individual differences in children's friendship adjustment. Subjects were 216 children ages 8-15 years. Sociometric nominations were used to determine the identities of reciprocal friends. Loneliness at camp was also tracked over time. In addition, data on group acceptance, behavioral reputations, social competence, and behavioral problems were gathered from peers and counselors. Arlalyses suggested that friendship formation and duration were coherent, independent dimensions of individual differences and distinct from the overall extensivity of involvement in friendships. Regression analyses indicated that the temporal parameters of participation in friendship en-hanced the prediction of changes in loneliness at camp. Age and sex differences in temporal psirameters were explored, and 4 discrete trajectories for friendship involvement were identified. Ghildren with different trajectories differed in their behavioral profiles from one another and from children who were chronically friendless. Because friendships offer children emo- highlight individual differences in how tional support and promote social and cogni- friendship networks are organized, such as tive skills (Berndt, in press; Hartup, 1992; variations in the so-called density of chil