Will you still be my best friend next time? Understanding friendship stability in neurodivergent adolescents
Gabriella Boffice & Miranda D’Amico
Abstract
Adolescent friendships enhance quality of life and can be arguably even more crucial for neurodivergent individuals who often report struggling with social exclusion and loneliness (McCausland et al., 2020). Close friendships within this population can combat said barriers by increasing feelings of happiness (Fulford & Cobigo, 2016), self-confidence (Lafferty et al., 2013), and community engagement (Athamanah et al., 2019), yet not much is known about the qualities that define these friendships or make them long-lasting (Josol et al., 2022). Semi-structured interviews and standardized assessments were conducted with neurodivergent adolescents to: (a) understand the perspectives and definitions of friendship, and (b) examine whether adolescents’ social skills and dyadic friendship quality predict whether a friendship remains stable over a 2-month period. Results suggest that neurodivergent adolescents understand friendship as a multidimensional, highly valued relationship, characterized by mutual respect, support, and reciprocal interactions. Most friendships did not remain stable over the two-month period, and this instability was not explained by adolescents’ social skills or their perceived friendship quality.