A positive social relationship between unrelated individuals who are well known to one another. This broad definition does not capture the developmental history of friendships. For pre-schoolers and elementary school children, friendships are based on having playmates within the context of group acceptance while friendships during adolescence are intimate and intense and susceptible to peer group pressures for conformity. For adolescents, and girls in particular, the lack of friends can give rise to emotional and mental difficulties that persist beyond adolescence. Increasingly, friendships can facilitate emotional and moral development, as well as promoting social skills. The impact of social media on friendships may mean that such benefits become less evident (e.g., giving rise to the spread of ‘faceless’ bullying). A five-level model that has a bearing on the development of friendships has been devised by Robert L. Selman. There are few studies that have addressed both developmental similarities and differences in friendship development across cultures. One general finding in this respect is that intimacy assumes greater importance in the friendships of children in Korea and Cuba compared to their North American counterparts. In China, there is the concept of ren or forbearance that children abide by in the face of peer animosity, which is assumed to promote restraint and tolerance from peers who are behaving in such a way.
See Attractions, Co-rumination, Indifference, Obligation, Peer group, Peers, Repulsions, Social development, Sociometry