title: Family lives and friendships: the perspectives of children in step-, single-parent, and nonstep families.
abstract: Children's reports on their experiences in different family settings (stepfamilies, single-parent families, and intact families), their contact with friends, and the quality of their friendships were studied with data from 238 children drawn from a community sample. A particular focus was on children's confiding and communication: children's recall of communication about family transitions and their current communication about stepfamily issues with family and friends. Friends were found to be key confidants. The relations between children's family lives (confiding, parent-child relationships, family activities, involvement in parental conflict, and communication about stepfamily issues) and their friendships were investigated and found to be linked to biological relatedness and family setting.
authors.affiliation: Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF, United Kingdom. judy.dunn@iop.kcl.ac.ak
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: T G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: O'Connor
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sturgess
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D020954:Single-Parent Family / Q000523:psychology*