Effects of friends' characteristics on children's social cognitions

Based on the notion that friends play a fundamental role in childrens socia l cognitive development, the study investigates the relation between friend s' characteristics (i.e., aggressiveness and prosociality) and children's i nterpretation of social cues and generation of responses in hypothetical pr ovocation situations. The study was conducted with a sample of 322 children (155 boys, 167 girls) front first through? sixth grade. The results showed that, for older children only, friends aggressiveness predicted an increas e of the frequency of aggressive solutions, whereas friends' prosociality p redicted an increase of the frequency of pacifistic/prosocial solutions. Th e latter effect was only true for non-aggressive children, though. The resu lts are discussed in terms of the possible mechanisms underlying the differ ential effects of friends characteristics on children's social cognition.