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October 12, 2004
Kids And Friendship
Interview
with Michael Thompson, Ph.D author of the book, Best
Friends, Worst Enemies
Mike
Carruthers:
Childhood friendships can be the most important ones. Michael
Thompson, Ph.D:
You
know friendship in childhood is a better predictor of adult mental health than
grades or IQ. Dr.
Michael Thompson author of the book, Best
Friends, Worst Enemies says eighty five to ninety percent of school kids have
at least one friend, but… The
bottom ten percent of the social hierarchy is rejected kids. I'm not worried about
eighty five to ninety percent of kids cause they have a friend or two. But children
at the bottom who have no friends are at risk. None of us would go back to a job
where people said we were weird or a dork or didn't want to work with us, but
kids have to do that, it's devastating. Dr.
Thompson says parents of rejected kids can do something. You
talk to the child's teacher and make an alliance, get the guidance counselor involved
because the research shows that if a guidance counselor runs friendship groups
of low status kids and high status kids it can make a real difference. And
remember says Dr. Thompson that friendship and popularity are not the same thing. Friendship
is the gold of childhood. If your child has a friend or two they're all right.
Your child may not be in the terms that the class sets, very popular. There is
very little you can do about your child's popularity and you shouldn't spend a
ton of time suffering. What you do is you support their friendships. Open your
house to their friends, take their friends on weekend trips, make friends with
the parents of your child's friends. At
somethingyoushouldknow.net I'm
Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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