Successful friendships of Hispanic children and youth with disabilities

Abstract

Interviews were conducted with Hispanic children who had a disability and a friend with whom they had a successful friendship, as well as with parents and teachers. We focused the interviews on the children's and adults' descriptions of the friendship, what each of the children gave to and received from the friendship, the evolution of the friendship in terms of intensity, and the influence of Hispanic cultural values. A friendship support conceptual framework is presented to organize the data related to three relationship domains (companionship, instrumental support, and emotional support) and three friendship depth levels (acquaintance, casual, and intimate). We focused our key recommendations on future directions for research and friendship facilitation.