Mothers' and Children's Friendships: Intergenerational Associations

We assessed predictability of the friendship participation and quality, as well as the popularity, of 154 children 8 to 12 years of age from measures of their mothers' social relationships. Measures included questionnaires assessing qualities of the mothers' best friendships and the quality of the marital relationship, and an interview measure of maternal acceptance of the child. Results indicated that qualities of the mothers' best friendship, in particular self-referent reward qualities, significantly predicted child friendship participation, the closeness and helpfulness of children's friendships, child popularity and maternal acceptance. Marital status was an important predictor, and marital quality a lesser predictor, of child friendship quality but not of popularity. Results suggest domain-specific parental influences on children's friendships which are distinct from peer popularity.