Poster #100 - Preschool temperament and the quality of adolescents' friendships: Longitudinal links

• In Event: Poster Session 13

Abstract

Children's typical reactions to diverse and novel situations, their regulation of intense emotions and sensitivity to changes in their environment, were linked to various social and emotional developments (Rothbart & Bates, 2006). Effortful control, a major temperament component which was defined as children's volitional regulation of attention and action, was linked to adaptive social behavior (Laible, Carlo, Davis, & Karahuta, 2016). However, most studies focused on predicting mal-adaptive developments (e.g., Eisenberg, Valiente, et al., 2009; Murray & Kochanska, 2002), and did not explore how children's temperamental qualities affect adaptive friendships in childhood. This study aims to examine the longitudinal contribution of temperament to the representations of deep and supportive friendships in adolescence; a period in which social ties are very important (Rabaglietti & Ciairano, 2008).
One hundred and eight children (54 boys) and their mothers, who participated in the study as preschoolers, were seen again in early adolescence (mean age = 12:09-year-old). The preschool phase included mothers' reports of their children's temperament through the children's behavior questionnaire - very short form (Putnam & Rothbart, 2006). The early adolescence phase took place 8:06 years later, and included the administration of the Friends and Family Interview (Steele & Steele, 2005). In this interview, adolescents were asked about their friendship with a best friend; its favorable versus challenging sides, emotional support, complex feelings like jealousy, understanding their friend's thoughts and feelings and the ability to resolve conflicts. The transcribed interviews were analyzed and coded for the quality of close friendship relations, as good relations were described as supportive and balanced, and portrayed through organized, reliable, and coherent narratives. The quality of adolescents' friendship was entered as a dependent variable into a hierarchical regression analysis, in which children's gender, which served as a control variable, was entered first, and children's effortful control in preschool was entered last.
Girls scored higher than boys in the quality of their close friendships. The regression model for adolescents' quality of friendship explained 23% of the variance and was significant (F[2,102] = 15.5, p< .001). Children's effortful control in preschool, when entered last, contributed a significant portion to the explained variance in adolescents' quality of friendship (R(change)= 3.0%, F(1,102)= 4.4, p<.04) over and above gender (R(change)= 20.0%, F(1,103)= 25.7, p<.001).
These results underscore the importance of children's self-regulation of emotions and behaviors in forming stable and significant friendships over the course of childhood (Gillessen, Jiang, West, & Laszkowski, 2005). High effortful control supports children's ability to inhibit their impulsivity and handle their negative emotions, thus promoting better communication and conflict resolution in interpersonal interactions (Oldehinkel, Hartman, Ferdinand, Verhulst, & Ormel, 2007). These behavioral qualities are very useful for forming good quality friendships, and highly needed for their preservation at any age, especially in adolescence. Finally, girls described their friendships as more supportive and profound, corresponding to gender differences found in adolescents' friendships (De Goede, Branje, & Meeus, 2009). More research is needed to elaborate on the interaction between temperament and gendered patterns of friendship ties.

Authors

• Revital Tamari, Tel Hai academic College
  Presenting Author

• Ora Aviezer, Tel Hai College