Friendship Formation and Mentalization in Children: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Stable and supportive friendships are of great importance for children’s growth and flourishing. The present study was conducted with the aim of developing a mentalization-based model of friendship formation in children, particularly rejected children. This study employed a qualitative design using a deductive thematic network analysis approach. The research context consisted of 100 scientific sources (including books, articles, and dissertations), and the sample included 33 scientific sources. A thematic analysis results recording form was used to extract the components of mentalization-based friendship formation. The textual data were analyzed through deductive thematic analysis (Attride-Stirling, 2001), along with the calculation of the Content Validity Index (CVI) and Content Validity Ratio (CVR). The findings indicated that the mentalization-based friendship formation model comprises four organizing themes: understanding one’s own experiences (mental, emotional, and behavioral) in friendship; understanding others’ experiences (mental, emotional, and behavioral) in friendship; co-mentalizing one’s own experiences (management and regulation of mental, emotional, and behavioral aspects) in friendship; and co-mentalizing others’ experiences (management and regulation of mental, emotional, and behavioral aspects) in friendship. Each of these four main themes also included a diverse range of subthemes. Based on the findings of this study on the mentalization-based friendship formation model, it is suggested that these results be utilized for the development and validation of mentalization-based friendship training programs and for constructing assessment tools to measure mentalization-based friendship capacity in children, in order to expand research in this field.