Essay on the Quality of Friendship: A Primary Determinant of Social Development

Some of the factors that determine a positive friendship encompass the underlying pro-social traits, profound intimacy, along with lower levels of conflicts between individuals. Therefore, the quality of friendship has been regarded as a primary determinant of the children's social development process (Berndt, 2002). It shapes the children's self-esteem through establishing certain social adjustments that have an impact on the underlying child's success in the overall social world of the peers. Besides, the quality of friendship may also pose specific indirect effects on the children's social development process by lowering the influence of friends regarding the resulting attitude and behaviors in children (Berndt, 2002). In the same measure, it may also magnify the resulting importance concerning the social development process. The overall impact of surrounding oneself with meaningful friendship acts towards lowering the tendency of children to develop certain undesirable traits like shyness and withdrawal effects on the children's social developmental processes.

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It owes to the adage that states, "A friend in need is a friend indeed." (Berndt, 2002).The conventional implication of the proverb is that children acquire pro-social traits along their development process from friends. Since high-quality friends are prone to encouraging each other after failed attempts in making individual signs of progress in the social development process, it is arguable that friendship is a significant factor in shaping children's self-esteem (Berndt, 2002). However, sometimes it gets challenging for children to identify high-quality bonds on their own due to insufficient exposure to social life. Therefore, most children identify high-quality friends after hitting the adolescent stages since the stage entails various social transformations in the children's development process. At that stage, children mark best friends as individuals who tell each other everything and are willing to reveal their innermost secrets to others (Berndt, 2002). They portray immense levels of self-disclosure since they feel intrinsically attached to others. Therefore, children depict the social behaviors of their best friends after identifying how close one gets to them in challenging times. Certain hallmarks of best friends, according to children, entail sticking around them during conflict situations with other parties as this portrays loyalty and the level of intimacy that exists between the individuals (Berndt, 2002).

In assessing the impacts of friendship on children's social development process, some researchers have marked certain positive traits of good fellowship. Children's pro-social behaviors, the support on building other's self-esteem levels alongside the existing intimacy, have been significant factors of identifying the quality of friendship between children (Elizabeth, 2017). In assessing accurate results, the researchers have enquired from some children the frequency at which they hold self-disclosure sessions and the factors that trigger such conversations. From the responses, the researchers have concluded that the positive features of friendships are linked to a particular dimension.

On the other hand, some children have reported certain forms of inter-parental relationship abuse during their childhood, which has, in turn, affected their social development processes (Elizabeth, 2017). The said intergenerational transmission of violence has been a common issue in various instances. The children who have fallen victims of the abuse have always portrayed signs of low-quality friendships to their peers. They have been marked as primary perpetrators of most abusive scenarios. They have recorded fewer friends at the adolescent stages than during the early childhood stages.

The validity of the studies has been ascertained from multiple respondents' recall of how they witnessed the intergenerational abuse during their childhood. Therefore, it is clear that a particular relationship between children has been shaped by their parents and caregivers and not their friends, as has been on the previous studies. Some children at the adolescent stages are seen to be downplaying signs of the poor relationship as they are directly exhibiting the violence they experienced from their caregivers during their childhood stages. Therefore, the studies reveal the impact that parents have on children's social development processes (Elizabeth, 2017). The underlying lessons from the studies are that in as much as parents may attempt to hide signs of violence from the younger children, the resulting outcome will be felt on the older children as they may tend to portray the same traits among their peers. It is because the children at the adolescent stage of growth are more sensitive in depicting the subtle behaviors of the psychological, intimate partner violence along their development process. The underlying impact may affect even their dating life in the youthful stages of life.

Moreover, various critical concurrent linkages between inter-parental violence and the underlying children's behavior have been used in explaining the social development processes in children (Elizabeth, 2017). Multiple surveys regarding children's exposure to inter-parental abuse are described from the level of physical violence. In general, the underlying facts concerning intergenerational transmission theory of children's psychological abuse are useful in determining the level of involvement that adolescent children portray in intimate partner abuse.

In the further assessment of the existing relationships between friendship and social development, various trends in the sexual health of the adolescent children have been recorded to determine an intrinsic correlation between parenting and adolescent sexual outcomes (Meschke et al., 2002). The assessment reviewed the interventions of teenage sexuality with their parent's components. For instance, the studies have revealed that American adolescents' record higher rates of unprotected sex, along with multiple cases of sexually transmitted diseases than adults (Meschke et al., 2002). The reports supersede similar cases in European teens by nine times. Therefore, the parenting efforts have been actively connected to adolescent sexual behaviors in America, as revealed by the reviews 19 relevant programs that uphold the theory of incorporation alongside the models of ecological applications (Meschke et al., 2002).

The studies also reveal that the children's social development processes are determined by the impacts of the parent-child relationship as well as the messages that their parents pass to them in the intergenerational processes. Besides, the studies intensify that mothers have a more significant impact on shaping their children's social development processes. Mother-child interaction has always noted to have the most influence (Meschke et al., 2002). The conclusion has been made following direct interviews that aim at drawing the roles of fathers in children's social development processes. The resulting interviews revealed that fathers are not always engaged in sexual communication with their children in the same measure as mothers (Meschke et al., 2002). Sexual contact mostly exists between mothers to daughters hence contributing to the higher impact on the female gender regarding the result of the inter-parental effects.

Regarding the previous findings on different strategies of parental communication to children, the hypothesis that gender may transform to be a significant factor that explains the mediation of children exposed to pornography is correct (Meschke et al., 2002). It is because fathers have portrayed lower restrictive measures in controlling the level of exposure of children to pornography than mothers. Fathers have dysfunctional communication regarding pornography to their children in adolescent children.

On balance, the social development in children is shaped by the kinds of relationships they have with both their friends and parents. However, the parental impact has been reported to have a more considerable influence on the overall children's social development stages. Therefore, parents should be more vigilant in monitoring their children since even the traits that the latter pass to their peers are determined by the underlying parental guidance.

References

Berndt, T. J. (2002). Friendship quality and social development. Current directions in psychological science, 11(1), 7-10. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-8721.00157Elizabeth, A. Mumford. (2017). The role of Conditional Tolerance for Violence and Friendship Factors.

Meschke, L. L., Bartholomae, S., & Zentall, S. R. (2002). Adolescent sexuality and parent-adolescent processes: Promoting healthy teen choices. Journal of adolescent health, 31(6), 264-279. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1054139X02004998