Problem-Solving Processes in Friendships and Peer Relationships

Abstract

In previous chapters, I have explored how children navigate family change and maintain connections to non-resident or deceased family members, and how children imagine addressing a range of personal problems encountered as a consequence of a step-father moving into their family home. In the context of their family relationships, in particular, in post-separation and divorce families (Haugen, 2007; Marschall, 2014) children have been found to be highly responsive to those that they love and care for (see Chapter 4, Brannen et al., 2000). Whilst children are understood as ‘moral’ (Mayall, 2002) and ‘emotional actors’ (Brannen and Heptinstall, 2003, p. 195) in the context of home, there has been relatively little research into children’s caring dispositions towards friends and peers in school. Yet concerns about helping children to be kind and caring towards other children at school, to report and cope with bullying and resolve conflict, are ongoing.