Children Without Friends: Implications for Practice and Policy

Abstract

Children's friendships provide a logical focus for school mental health programs: they act as early warnings of and preventive interventions for both scholastic and socioemotional distress. This article examines developmental investigations of children's friendships and children without friends and explains how they challenge current conceptualizations of social interventions and their supporting policies. Developmental changes in children's understanding of friendships and strategies to identify children without friends are discussed. Factors that co-occur with any may contribute to friendlessness are discussed: behaviors with peers that disrupt interactions; difficulties with the social cognitive tasks of peer interactions; limited empathic abilities; limited confidence in social situations, and constrained opportunities to enter into social activities. Recommendations for practice and implications for school policy are given.

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