Friends serve central functions for children that parents do not, and they play a critical role in shaping children's social skills and their sense o….

Whereas children can learn from their interactions with their parents how to get along in one sort of social hierarchy--that of the family--it is fro….

Children, then, acquire social skills not so much from adults as from their interactions with one another. They are likely to discover through trial ….

Although adults have a role to play in teaching social skills to children, it is often best that they play it unobtrusively. In particular, adults mu….

Belonging to a group can provide the child with a variety of resources that an individual friendship often cannot--a sense of collective participatio….