| Children’s friendships provide a context for social support known to buffer several stressful life events (Prinstein and Giletta 2016). Accumulating evidence now indicates that having a close friend protects children from the deleterious effects of family dysfunction (Bukowski et al. 2009), general peer rejection (Bukowski et al. 2010) and peer victimization (Fox and Boulton 2006). Longitudinal data suggests that friendships may also be associated with the ability to cope with negative affect and reduced experience of emotional distress (Masten et al. 2012). These benefits may depend on the quality of the friendship. Friendship quality is defined in terms of positive (e.g., companionship, caring, and support, validation) and negative (e.g., conflict, aggression, jealousy) features (Berndt 1996). Friendship quality is negatively related to maladaptive behaviors, internalizing problems, and school maladjustment. Stable, high-quality friendships are associated with later social adjustment (Bagwell and Schmidt 2011). A growing body of studies during the past two decades indicates that children with Attention-Hyperactivity/Deficit Disorder (ADHD) experience significant and treatmentresistant friendship problems (Blachman and Hinshaw 2002; Hoza et al. 2005a; b; Marton et al. 2015). According to the Multimodal Treatment of ADHD (MTA) study, 56% of children with ADHD have no friends, compared to 32% of typical children (Hoza et al. 2005b). They also have trouble keeping their friends over time (Blachman and Hinshaw 2002; Marton et al. 2015; Normand et al. 2013). The few studies of the friendship quality of children with ADHD reveal that their friendships are characterized by less intimacy, reciprocity, and satisfaction with the relationship (Normand et al. 2011, 2013), but more conflict than those of typical children (Blachman and Hinshaw 2002; Normand et al. 2011, 2013). Interestingly, compared with other children, children with ADHD do not generally report more difficulties making or keeping friends (Bagwell et al. 2001; Marton et al. 2015), highlighting the need to assess friendship patterns with multiple methods and informants, including observational measurement (Bagwell and Schmidt 2011; Pellegrini 2013). |
