School Companions and Friendships

The child's social development during the second half dozen years of his life is marked by important differences in the stability, intimacy, and strength of his friendships, as well as in the character of his play and other interests. Companionship is not so largely determined by propinquity as in the earlier years when the child's range of getting about was narrowly limited to his immediate small neighborhood. Children of similar chronological and mental ages, of similar developmental ages, having a community of interests and common activities, tend to be companions. With the increased experience, mental ability, and, general maturity resulting from age, lines of interest tend to become better defined. All of these conditions mean that his personality is developing and that his patterns of behavior are becoming more definite. Accordingly, the selection of companions becomes less childish and more mature as first puberty, then adolescence, maturity, and middle age approach. In later childhood, however, proximity may still be a factor, because it does provide opportunities for acquaintanceship and more or less intimate understanding. Thus, studies of gangs show that living in the same neighborhood (common environment) and being in the same grade at school are basic conditions underlying the forming of gangs. Other studies seem to show that children prefer as friends those who are quiet, self-controlled, "smart," good in their lessons, strong, and "not silly." At least, these are some of the qualities which they say they prefer.

Factors in the Formation of Groups

During the first four or five years of the child's life the factors that induce the child's contacts with others and the formation of groups seem to be helplessness and need, companionship in play, and common interests in toys or other objects. These earliest groups usually have two members, while later on larger groups are formed. During the years from six to twelve, common interests and activities, similarity in chronological, mental, and developmental ages, are factors underlying the formation of groups. Such groups are more stable and lasting than the rapidly shifting groupings of the pre-school years. Various environmental factors also may be influential, such as living in a certain neighborhood close to some other groups whose activities are well known. At about the eighth to tenth years boys and girls frequently form clubs or gangs of one sort or another. Many of these are short-lived. A name, membership dues, a time and place of meeting, a list of members, and no very definite specified purposes, are common characteristics of many clubs at this age. We have studied many of them among public-school children, ages eight to fourteen. Girls' clubs are common at these ages and are very transitory and short-lived. Boys' clubs seem to be more definite in their objectives and more lasting. It may be that boys feel a keener need for such social groupings. The intimacy, loyalty, and solidarity in some of these groups are truly remarkable, as various detailed accounts of them have shown.

Community feeling, however, seems to be slow in developing. Tattling is found in the earlier school years. Identification of one's self with the group in such a vital way as to regard group success as highly satisfying is also slow in developing. Doing things for the good of the group, as in teamwork, develops gradually. Even several years after the child begins school it may have little motivating power in child behavior. Anyone organizing a baseball team of ten-year-old boys is not likely to have any scarcity of candidates for catching, pitching, first base, and short stop, but he will lack fielders.