Identifying Classroom Friendships: Teachers’ Confidence and Agreement With Children

We conducted an exploratory study to investigate teachers’ confidence and agreement with children when teachers and children identified close classroom friendships. Participants comprised six kindergarten teachers and 110 children, including 26 children with disabilities. Data were gathered from a friendship nomination questionnaire completed by teachers and a friendship nomination task completed by children. On average, teachers accurately identified one peer that a target child also named as a “best friend.” Teachers also identified children selected as “very best friends” for 59% of their students when using a less conservative definition of very best friendship. Teachers reported being confident in identifying friendships, on average, for 39% of their class. However, greater confidence did not equate with more accurate reports. Although teachers were slightly more confident in their friendship reports for children with disabilities, they were also less accurate. Implications for supporting friendship development and future research are discussed.

Early Adolescents' Friendship Patterns in Middle School: Social–Emotional and Academic Implications

This research examined the interactions between friendship patterns, school achievement, coping skills, self-concept and the classroom learning environment for 182 early adolescents, mean age 13 years 5 months (47.25% male). Participants completed the Friendship Nomination Form. The second phase of data collection focused on adolescents with high or low friendship ratings, who then completed four social and two academic measures. The social measures were: (1) Friendship Quality Scale (FQS; Bukowski, Hoza, & Boivin, 1994), (2) Self-Description Questionnaire II–Short Form (Marsh, 1990), (3) Coping Strategy Indicator–Short Form (CSI-S; Amirkhan, 1990) and (4) What is Happening in this Classroom Scale (WIHIC; Fraser, Fisher, & McRobbie, 1996). Adolescents with more friends reported more companionship and help from friends. Those with fewer friends perceived their classroom to be less cohesive and less cooperative. Females reported more closeness and friendship commitment than males. Friendship patterns had a significant influence on students' English achievement but not their mathematics achievement. The implications of the findings for school professional are discussed.