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Introduction
Being one of the strongest types of interpersonal bonds, friendships play a crucial role in human life. They are an interesting phenomenon in developmental psychology as children’s cognitive maturation is marked by becoming more selective in such relationships. In childhood, one’s attitudes to making friends change in line with Damon’s three-stage model, and friendships have profound positive effects on development in the emotional and social domains.
Damon’s Friendship Stages
Damon distinguishes between three stages through which children’s comprehension of the friendship concept passes as they grow. During the first stage seen in kids aged 4-7, the definitions of friendship relationships are limited by behavioral rather than inner personal characteristics (Feldman, 2018). For instance, during this stage, the fact of sharing toys and engaging in common activities with another child is enough to consider this person a friend. Stage two is observed in those aged 8-10 and involves children’s increasing comprehension of mutual trust as a crucial aspect of friendships (Feldman, 2018). In this stage, positive interactions and mutual activities no longer serve as an excuse for betrayed trust and a lack of dependability, and children begin to understand the role of apologies in reestablishing friendships. Finally, stage three occurs between 11 and 15 years and features psychological proximity as the chief criterion of meaningful relationships (Feldman, 2018). During this stage, friendships become more exclusive, personal, and centered on the sense of closeness. Thus, the opportunity to share personal thoughts without the fear of betrayal gradually becomes the basic value.
How Friendships Evolve and the Effect on Social/Emotional Development
Friendships evolve by means of gradual transitions from simple/action-based to more complex understandings of proximity and peers’ inner qualities. Such relationships start as concrete but superficial interpersonal connections, with engaging in one and the same pleasurable experience or visiting the same setting as the basis of connections between children. As time passes, children become less self-centered and start to expect trustworthiness and reciprocity in relationships, and the elements of assessing others’ behaviors and acting depending on such assessments emerge and guide interaction between friends. Notably, as children grow up, their friendship-related preferences evolve to shift toward cultural similarity, which explains an inverse relationship between age and the number of interracial friendships (Feldman, 2018). Relationships become more exclusive progressively as developing individuals grasp the ability to verbalize traits and qualities that alter their attitudes to peers positively or negatively, which enables them to start and end friendships more thoughtfully.
Friendships per se and the child’s smooth progression through the aforementioned stages produce a positive effect on both social (SD) and emotional development (ED). By making friends, children broaden their perspectives beyond those in their households. Such relationships challenge them to build self-presentation skills and comprehend pro-social behaviors and interpersonal communication, thus supporting SD (Feldman, 2018). As children’s definitions of mutual affection evolve to include moral/personality characteristics, their comprehension of societal structures and belonging also becomes more nuanced, contributing to SD. Concerning ED, constant interactions with friends expose children to reference points to distinguish between normal and deviant self-expression styles and develop emotional self-awareness. By evolving into relationships based on psychological proximity, friendships enable children to share concerns without the fear of rejection, which adds to building stress resilience and self-regulation as part of ED (Feldman, 2018). Therefore, ED and SD benefit from maintaining friendships and demonstrating normal development in terms of friendship stages.
Conclusion
To sum up, friendships promote child development and evolve to reflect changes in children’s understanding of affection and reciprocity. Damon’s model offers insight into fluctuations in the relative importance of common activities, trust, and psychological similarity as the prerequisites for close relationships. Making friends and developing age-appropriate friendship-related priorities are essential to comprehend social structures, norms, and the basics of expressing and responding to emotions.
Reference
Feldman, R. S. (2018). Child development (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
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