We are currently inviting families to participate in a five-year study during which we will follow children from the time they are 9 until they are 14. 

We are trying to understand how children make and keep friends, with a special focus on both direct and indirect ways that children express anger and hurt one another.  We are interested in learning about the different ways children behave with their friends, how those behaviors change or stay the same during these important years in a child’s development, and whether behaviors in the earlier years might tell us something about how the same children will behave as they enter adolescence. We also are interested in exploring whether there are gender differences in children’s social behaviors and if so, when these differences emerge. We believe that in-depth research into children’s friendships will provide important information for helping children be happy, accepted, and socially adept.

This project has been approved by Dr. Lori Nebulsick-Gullet and Dr. Michael Stozeski at the district level for the Richardson Independent School District. The research will be funded by a $1.25 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.