Concepedia

Language, Social Behavior, and the Quality of Friendships in Adolescents With and Without a History of Specific Language Impairment

Child Development · 2007 · 351 citations · 91 references

TL;DR

Language plays a key role in friendships, yet its influence has been understudied in developmental research. The study compared friendship quality between 16‑year‑old adolescents with and without specific language impairment to assess how social behaviors and language ability predict it. The study recruited 120 adolescents with SLI and 118 typically developing peers for comparison. After controlling for IQ and behavior, language ability predicted friendship quality, with TD adolescents enjoying normal friendships while SLI adolescents more often had poorer quality, and early language difficulties forecasted lower friendship quality later.

Abstract

Language is drawn on extensively in friendships but has received scant attention in the developmental literature. This study compared friendship quality in 16‐year‐old adolescents with and without specific language impairment (SLI), testing the extent it is predicted by individual differences in social behaviors and language ability. Participants were 120 adolescents with SLI and 118 typically developing (TD) adolescents. After considering the effects of nonverbal IQ and prosocial and difficult behavior, language measures were found to be associated with friendship quality. The TD participants enjoyed normal friendships, whereas the participants with SLI were more likely to exhibit poorer quality (although 60% experienced good quality of friendships). Longitudinal analyses identified early language difficulties as predictive of poorer friendship quality in adolescence.