Friendships in children with Williams syndrome: parent and child perspectives

Amanda E. Gillooly; Deborah M. Riby; Kevin Durkin; Sinéad M. Rhodes

doi:10.1007/s10803-022-05807-5

Friendships in children with Williams syndrome: parent and child perspectives

Amanda E. Gillooly, Deborah M. Riby, Kevin Durkin, Sinéad M. Rhodes

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

30 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Although children with Williams syndrome (WS) are strongly socially motivated, many have friendship difficulties. The parents of 21 children with WS and 20 of the children themselves participated in a semi-structured interview about the children's friendships. Parents reported that their child had difficulties sustaining friendships and low levels of interaction with peers. Barriers to friendships included difficulties with play and self-regulating behaviour. However, there was within-group variability, with a small number of children reported to have strong friendships. While parents reported friendship challenges, all of the children named at least one friend, and most said that they had never felt excluded by their peers. Future research is needed to determine optimal ways to support children with WS in their friendships.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	509-517
Number of pages	9
Journal	Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Volume	54
Issue number	2
Early online date	18 Nov 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05807-5
Publication status	Published - Feb 2024

Funding

This research was funded by a PhD studentship from the University of Strathclyde to the first author. We would like to express our gratitude to all of the children and families who generously donated their time to participate in this research.

Keywords

Williams syndrome
friendships
social inclusion
social skills

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10.1007/s10803-022-05807-5Licence: CC BY 4.0

Gillooly-etal-JADD-2022-Friendships-in-children-with-Williams-syndrome-parent-and-childFinal published version, 586 KBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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title = "Friendships in children with Williams syndrome: parent and child perspectives",

abstract = "Although children with Williams syndrome (WS) are strongly socially motivated, many have friendship difficulties. The parents of 21 children with WS and 20 of the children themselves participated in a semi-structured interview about the children's friendships. Parents reported that their child had difficulties sustaining friendships and low levels of interaction with peers. Barriers to friendships included difficulties with play and self-regulating behaviour. However, there was within-group variability, with a small number of children reported to have strong friendships. While parents reported friendship challenges, all of the children named at least one friend, and most said that they had never felt excluded by their peers. Future research is needed to determine optimal ways to support children with WS in their friendships.",

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AU - Riby, Deborah M.

AU - Durkin, Kevin

AU - Rhodes, Sinéad M.

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N2 - Although children with Williams syndrome (WS) are strongly socially motivated, many have friendship difficulties. The parents of 21 children with WS and 20 of the children themselves participated in a semi-structured interview about the children's friendships. Parents reported that their child had difficulties sustaining friendships and low levels of interaction with peers. Barriers to friendships included difficulties with play and self-regulating behaviour. However, there was within-group variability, with a small number of children reported to have strong friendships. While parents reported friendship challenges, all of the children named at least one friend, and most said that they had never felt excluded by their peers. Future research is needed to determine optimal ways to support children with WS in their friendships.

AB - Although children with Williams syndrome (WS) are strongly socially motivated, many have friendship difficulties. The parents of 21 children with WS and 20 of the children themselves participated in a semi-structured interview about the children's friendships. Parents reported that their child had difficulties sustaining friendships and low levels of interaction with peers. Barriers to friendships included difficulties with play and self-regulating behaviour. However, there was within-group variability, with a small number of children reported to have strong friendships. While parents reported friendship challenges, all of the children named at least one friend, and most said that they had never felt excluded by their peers. Future research is needed to determine optimal ways to support children with WS in their friendships.

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KW - social inclusion

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JO - Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

JF - Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

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Friendships in children with Williams syndrome: parent and child perspectives

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