Moms should restrain themselves from interfering with kids’ friendships Prohibiting friendship with a perceived troublemaker tends to make things worse, researchers found Kids wind up rejected by their peers and forced into friendships with poorly adjusted classmates MONDAY, Sept. 9, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Meddling moms who try to prohibit their kids’ friendships with troublemakers will only make things worse, a new study says. Limiting contact with a friend who appears to be a bad influence tends to exacerbate the behavior problems parents were hoping to head off, researchers reported recently in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry .
Instead, kids will typically begin acting out, after being shunned by any friend who's hurt or angered by a mom’s disapproval, researchers said. “Social opportunities are likely to wither as peers avoid affiliating with someone who is depicted as uncool,” explained researcher Brett Laursen , a professor of psychology at Florida Atlantic University. For the study, researchers tracked 292 boys and 270 girls ages 9 to 14 during the course of a school year.
The students completed surveys at the beginning, middle and end of the year in which they reported whether they were liked or disliked by classmates. The kids also rated each others’ disruptiveness in the classroom and provided personal reports of conduct problems, as well as any perceived disapproval from moms regarding their friends. Mothers who disapproved of friends i.