Transcripts

Michael Thompson PhD:
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 because 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.