The matter of the first friendships

It has been quite exceptional to study day care centers as contexts for toddler's first friendships. It has been equal unusual to consider resilience and protective factors that provide support and adaptation for at-risk children. The potential for preven tion surely lies in increasing our knowledge of the reasons why some at-risk children despite all odds function well. This project is a product of a fruitful and harmonious collaboration with experts in developmental psychopathology in the UK and Canada . The present study is a populationbased natural experiment with 918 toddlers aged 2-5 years eligible for inclusion. The plan is tolet trained students or technicians to interview the children we obtain consent for, about their freindships and prosocial a bilities. Parents answer a questionnaire about risks and resources and staff members rate the children's psychosocial functioining and frendhsips. sTudents observe the quality of 44 small and large day care centers in three municipalities. The aim is to study three possible models:aditive,mediated and modorator, for the role of dyadic friendships in linking risk exposure to childhood psychopathology. By so doing, we can investigate protective processes (quality) of dyadic freindships in vulnerable child ren. These protective processes we expect will make a difference among at-rsik children, which is the real resilience test. There may or should not be important differences in general in children's emotional/behavioural developemnt dependenr on degree of exposure to peers or playmates, after accounting for individual (temperamental) and socio-familial factors. The first freinds may, however, matter with respect ot other social and procosial skills, but we may be wrong, after all, it is an empirical questi on. The results may indicate whether we need a restauration of ther preventive servuces for young children