Adolescents in Single Child Family and Friendship Relations: A Study with Special Reference to Kottayam District, Kerala

Adolescence is a time of major developmental changes in children and of significant transformations and realignment in family relations. But the changes associated with adolescence are affected by specific socio—cultural framework. Thus changes in family structure may affect the interactions and behavior pattern of adolescents. In the context of remarkable decrease in the fertility rate, there are a sizeable number of single child families in Kerala society. The changed interaction dynamics in the single child family might have its impact on the behavior pattern of the adolescents. But a child‘s opportunities to interact with the outside world increase largely during adolescence. Friendship has great significance during adolescence. Hence the present study attempts to analyze the nature and pattern of friendship relations of the adolescents belonging to single child family. The study was conducted among 115 adolescents from the single child family selected from Kottayam district in Kerala. The study found that the adolescents in the single child family were capable of forming intimate and relationship oriented friendship. However, boys were able to form more extensive friendship relations because of their increased freedom of mobility.