Intimate friendship relationships begin to develop especially in early adolescence (Berndt
1982) and are based on mutual attractiveness. However, if one is not able to establish such friendships, it can have serious negative developmental consequences in later life, leading to loneliness and depression (Nangle et al.
2003) and maladjustment (Bagwell et al.
1998). But how about friendships of highly overt aggressive boys? These boys have been shown to have aggressive peers as their best friends. In a study among 10 and 13 year-olds, highly aggressive boys were shown to have reciprocal friendships with similarly aggressive boys (Cairns et al.
1988). Moreover, in a study that assessed behavioral similarity between friends among third-graders, Poulin et al. (
1997) showed that both direct observations and peer ratings indicated that friends in a play-group context were similar with respect to proactive aggression. But do highly aggressive boys really
prefer aggressive friends? Their aggressiveness might scare off the potential friends they would prefer, creating great difficulties to realize the friendships they would like to have. Alternatively, aggressive peers may seek out each other as friends, and thus get what they want. To date, the vast majority of studies on peer relations and aggression has focused on the idea that adolescents select their friends according to their preferences. This hypothesis is based on the idea of homophily as a universal preference for friendships (Byrne
1971; McPherson et al.
2001). In terms of selection, friendship homophily refers to selection on the basis of similarity in behavior, opinions, or appearances. However, there is a contrasting hypothesis. The need for affection is likely to be universal (see Lindenberg
1996) and so even aggressive children who are not prosocial themselves may prefer friendships that include emotional warmth. However, due to their aggressive behavior, they might end up with friends among those nobody else wanted as friends because they lack warmth (Deptula and Cohen
2004; Hektner et al.
2000). In other words, friendship still occurs on the basis of similarity, but is due to a lack of availability instead of an actual preference for similarity. This phenomenon is called
default selection. To date, little is known about the preferences of highly aggressive adolescent boys who are low on prosocial behavior. Who do they want as their friends? Do their preferred friendships differ from those they are able to realize? In this study we will focus on the preferred and realized friendships of highly overt aggressive, low prosocial early adolescent boys (from here on called:
highly aggressive) and we will compare these to those of less or non-aggressive and highly aggressive-prosocial (i.e.,
bi-strategic) boys. To our knowledge, existing studies on friendships of early adolescents did not make a clear distinction between preferred (i.e., unilateral) and realized (i.e., reciprocal) friendships of aggressive boys. The question is: Do highly aggressive boys affiliate with similar peers because of homophily or default selection? Do they yearn for friendships with prosocial peers, like everybody else, or do they actively seek out other aggressive boys as friends?
Friendship
The importance of friendships in early adolescence has been shown in many studies. From childhood through adolescence, friendships become more salient (Buhrmester and Furman
1987; Marsh et al.
2006). Next to that, these relationships deepen, as children spend more time with their friends instead of their parents (Fallon and Bowles
1997; Larson et al.
1996), and the influence of friends becomes greater (Jang
1999). Along with the shift from relations with parents to establishing relationships with peers, adolescents generally derive emotional as well as practical support from their friends (Newcomb and Bagwell
1995; Stanton-Salazar and Spina
2005). What is the basis for forming friendships for highly aggressive boys? One of the leading ideas for friendship formation is homophily. Birds of a feather flock together (even if there are patterned differences as to what similarity dimensions are important, see Ham
2000). It has indeed been shown that befriended youth are often similar with regard to characteristics such as gender, background, and perceived interests (Berndt
1982; Hartup
1993; Tolson and Urberg
1993). In part, the similarity is the result of mutual influence rather than selection (in the sense of similarity preference). Thus, friends also become more similar over time. However, similarity based on selection has been shown to be a stronger factor in (early) adolescent friendships than similarity based on influence (see Urberg et al.
1998). Overtly aggressive friends in early adolescence are also quite similar, also with regard to aggressive behavior (Haselager et al.
1998; Poulin et al.
1997). Here too, selection effects have been found to be stronger than influence effects (Poulin and Boivin
2000). In addition, Cairns et al. (
1988) have found that children who were identified as overtly aggressive by their teachers had many reciprocated friendships with other overtly aggressive peers, so homophily selection appears to govern friendship choice also for overtly aggressive youth. Lacking the ability to provide emotional support themselves, and being highly instrumental (Crick and Dodge
1996), they are likely to expect from friendship only instrumental, i.e., practical, support (for example support for being jointly aggressive towards others, see Grotpeter and Crick
1996). Thus, we hypothesize that: (a) highly aggressive boys prefer friends who are like them (high on overt aggression) and (b) they can realize the friendships they prefer to the same extent as their less aggressive counterparts. This is the
homophily selection hypothesis. If we find evidence for this hypothesis, we can further examine the characteristics of the friendship relation in terms of perceived support (or benefits). In line with the homophily selection hypothesis we would expect that highly aggressive, non-prosocial boys will prefer non-supportive peers and that they can realize these friendships.
There is however another possibility. Highly aggressive boys may actually prefer friends who provide affection, referring to the combination of emotional and practical support that is so characteristic of friendship. It is unlikely that people have no need for affection (Lindenberg
1996; Ormel et al.
1997; Pendell
2002), even if they are highly aggressive and low on prosocial behavior themselves. For this reason, it is plausible to assume that highly aggressive boys do not get what they prefer when they select others who are overtly aggressive and lack the ability to give affection. A telltale sign might be that friendships of antisocial adolescents often dissolve quickly (Dishion et al.
1995). Although being overtly aggressive can contribute to popularity, it is unlikely to be attractive for friendship (Dijkstra et al.
2007; Hawley
2003; Newcomb et al.
1993). Overtly aggressive friends are known to be jointly aggressive towards others (Card and Hodges
2006), but they are also quick to respond with aggression towards their own friends when they feel provoked (Leary and Katz
2005). They also have been found to report significantly lower levels of friend intimacy than their nonaggressive counterparts (Grotpeter and Crick
1996). In short, what highly aggressive boys might want most out of friendships is the one thing they cannot provide: the
combination of emotional and practical support. However, being unattractive as a friend, their own choice in friendships is quite limited. If they befriend other overtly aggressive peers, there is a good chance that they settle for second best. This leads to our second hypothesis that contrasts the homophily expectation: (a) highly aggressive boys prefer friends who are low on aggression, just like their less aggressive counterparts; and (b) they are less likely to realize their preferred kind of friendship than their less aggressive counterparts. This is the
default selection hypothesis. That is, if the default selection hypothesis is supported, we expect that with regard to aggression there will be no difference between what highly aggressive and less aggressive boys prefer in their friendships. Moreover, we would also expect that highly aggressive boys prefer friends who are able to give emotional and practical support. In realized friendships however, we expect highly aggressive boys to have friends who are not only more aggressive than the friends of less aggressive boys, but also less supportive. There exists already some evidence for this hypothesis. For example, Aboud and Mendelson (
1996) found that aggressive peers often lack alternatives for friendship formation. Moreover, Deptula and Cohen (
2004) showed in their review that availability or default selection often leads rejected children to affiliate with each other, and the same may be true for highly aggressive adolescents. Also Hektner et al. (
2000) showed that aggressive 7-year-old children had mutual friendships with similar peers, but revealed a preference for non-aggressive peers. Thus there are good reasons for each of the competing hypotheses.
In the following, we will test these competing hypotheses against each other. We do so by focusing on early adolescent boys who are high on overt aggression and low on prosocial behavior (also described as ‘coercive controllers’, see Hawley
2003). This way we could distinguish this group from bi-strategic boys, i.e., those who combine pro- and antisocial behaviors and who may thus also be attractive as friends for those who seek affection. As a validation, we compared the preferred and realized friendships of less aggressive boys with those of bi-strategic boys and expected that bi-strategic boys would want
and end up with prosocial friends. That is, we hypothesized that the realized friends of bi-strategic and less aggressive boys were similar.
Although previous studies showed that antisocial and prosocial behavior can develop and be displayed differently for boys and girls (e.g., Hawley
2003; Van Lier et al.
2005; Wentzel et al.
2007), we were not able to test gender differences because there were too few highly overt aggressive girls in our sample. Therefore, we focused solely on boys in our analyses. In sum, we will compare friendship preferences and realized (i.e., reciprocal) friendships of highly aggressive, bi-strategic, and less aggressive early adolescent boys. Is there a difference in what they want? Is there a difference in what they can realize? We use the TRAILS study to answer these questions.