A multimethod exploration of the friendships of children considered socially withdrawn by their school peers

Friendships of children considered socially withdrawn by their school peers were investigated within a population of elementary school children. Recip rocal friends were identified by a friendship nomination procedure; social withdrawal was assessed by peer nominations. Trained graduate students tare d videotapes of dyads of friends (n = 58 dyads, of which 29 contained at le ast one withdrawn child) for selected features of friendship quality. In ad dition, each friend within a dyad provided ratings of the quality of the re lationship, The videotaped data showed the withdrawn children to be somewha t restricted in their verbal communication with their friends, and less com petitive with their friends, than were friends in a comparison group. In dy ads consisting of one withdrawn and one nonwithdrawn child, the withdrawn c hild perceived the relationship as characterized by greater closeness and h elpfulness than did the nonwithdrawn friend. Despite some signs of inhibite d behavior within the friendship context, withdrawn children seem to have a ccess to close friendships of high quality.