Friendship claims and communications of disturbed and normal children

Sixteen emotionally disturbed children from a day treatment program and sixteen normal children matched for age and sex were interviewed and asked how many friends they had. Each child was also asked to respond to a communication task involving a hypothetical friend's personal problem. Normal and disturbed children did not differ in the mean number of friends claimed, but there was a tendency for disturbed children to report having fewer than two friends more often than normals. Disturbed children performed less effectively and at a lower developmental level on the communication task. There was no relationship between friendship claims and performance in communication. Few questions were asked by the disturbed children, as compared to the normals, suggesting an area for training that might improve the competence of these youngsters.