Welcome to the Friendship Project website.  The Friendship Project is a study of how children make and keep friends, conducted by a group of developmental and clinical psychologists and students. 

We seek to understand how children get along with their friends, how they resolve conflicts and manage strong emotions in their relationships, and how friendships relate to children’s adjustment, at school and at home.  We are especially interested in understanding what may be distinctive features of girls’ and boys’ friendships.

We seek to understand both positive and negative features of children’s friendships, with the overall goal of helping all children to feel accepted and included. 

The Friendship Project is led by Dr. Marion K. Underwood, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Dallas, and the mother of two daughters.