FRIENDSHIP TEMPORALITY: THE MODERATING ROLES OF FRIENDSHIP CONTEXT AND ETHNICITY By

Changes and continuity that occurs in individuals ’ lives over time can positively or negatively impact their personal relationships. This paper introduces a new concept referred to as friendship temporality. Friendship temporality refers to the length of time children have maintained their friendships. The purpose of this study was to identify specific factors that impacted the temporality of children’s friendships. Participants in this study were 346 fifth grade students and their mothers from either Black or White ethnic backgrounds. Hierarchical generalized linear modeling was used to determine if both friendship-level (companionship, friendship context, and the number of contexts in which friendships were maintained) and child-level (ethnicity) variables were predictive of friendship temporality. Further, friendship context, number of contexts, and child ethnicity were examined as potential moderators of the association between friendship companionship and friendship temporality. Both White children and Black children reported friendships from 8 different contexts (school, neighborhood, church, child care, relative-as-friend, parent network, extracurricular activities, and other effort). Friendship companionship and more contexts of friendships increased the likelihood that friendships would be long-term. Friendships maintained within contexts that included parents (neighborhood, family-friend, same-age relative, other efforts) increased the odds that friendships would be long-term rather thanshort-term. Friendship context, number of contexts, and child ethnicity did not moderate the relation between friendship companionship and friendship temporality. THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN FRIENDSHIP COMPANIONSHIP AN