The friendships formed during growth are special. Learn about the benefits of childhood friendship on Friendship Day 2024.
When someone asks me, “Who is your closest friend?” I often don’t proudly admit that my closest circle of friends is made up of school peers. These are the friendships I have raised over the 20+ years of my life and I am sure that other friends know me in a way that doesn’t even know me. While growing up and facing the complexities of everyday life, you realize that some of your most honest friendships have been born when you were just a child. Childhood friendships are valuable, and if you have someone from childhood, make sure to keep them. Maintaining childhood friendships is important, but maintaining them is not always easy. However, once you know the benefits of childhood friends in adulthood, you might try harder!
What are the benefits of mental health of maintaining childhood friendship?
Adults who maintained childhood friendships found a study published in the Journal of Psychology in 2018 with lower blood pressure and body mass index.
Maintaining childhood friendships in adulthood can have a significant positive impact on mental health. Here are some advantages:
1. My childhood friends seem to be emotional anchors
Childhood Friends act as emotional anchors and provide life continuity and stability. These long-term connections can help you ground people during times of stress and uncertainty. This emotional consistency serves as a protective barrier to anxiety and despair, providing a regular source of support, says Dr. Chandni Tugnai, psychotherapist and life coach.
2. Long-term friendship leads to better self-understanding
Long-term friendships can provide valuable insight into your personality. Their perspective helps to maintain a more accurate self-image. This improved self-awareness contributes to improving mental health by promoting self-acceptance and enabling more authentic personal development.
3. Stress reduction
Childhood friendships can reduce stress by sharing history and understanding, and reduce effort to maintain relationships. This ease of engagement can reduce stress in a social environment. The ability to completely relax with someone you really really understand provides a mental break that is essential to general psychological well-being, experts say.
4. Improved resilience
Long-term friendships provide emotional support and lead to increased resilience. Knowing that you have close allies who have supported you throughout many stages of life may increase your confidence to take on new difficulties. This improved resilience helps you manage stress, adjust to changes, and recover more normally from set folds.
5. Nostalgia is a mood enhancer
Interactions with childhood friends often evoke nostalgia and can improve mental health. Nostalgic memories can improve mood, promote self-esteem, and add purpose to your life experiences. This preferred emotional experience is particularly advantageous in challenging situations.
6. Social skills strengthening
Maintaining long-term friendships involves continuous social skills development. These connections provide a healthy environment for developing and strengthening interpersonal skills, which can be applied to other aspects of life. According to Dr. Tugnait, strong social skills are associated with better mental health outcomes, such as a lower percentage of social anxiety and an increase in overall well-being.
Why do people lose contact with their childhood friends?
As a result of life changes and practical difficulties, people often lose contact with their childhood friends. As people go through stages of life, their paths naturally separate. Experts say career advancements, further education, and relocation of work can lead to geographical separation, making frequent contact more difficult.
Evolving interests and values play an important role. As people mature and evolve, they may discover that they have less in common with their childhood peers. New social networks formed through work, personal connections, or general adult interests are frequently prioritized.
Adults with time constraints may find it difficult to maintain some friendships. Due to responsibilities such as employment, family, and personal commitment, people often prioritize closer or more convenient interactions.
As people grow and evolve, it is not uncommon for people to deliberately distance themselves from their childhood connections. This can become a healthy part of personal development, allowing you to shed old identities and embrace new identities, experts say.
How to maintain childhood friendship?
Childhood friendships must be maintained in adulthood. It requires intentional effort and strategy. Here are some effective strategies:
1. Use technology
Stay connected using technologies such as social media, text messaging applications, and video conversations. Regular check-in helps you maintain the link, no matter how short it is. Set up group chats and virtual hangouts to relive the comfort of childhood conversations.
2. Create a shared experience
Plan regular meetings or trips. Annual reunions and weekend trips can provide dedication opportunities to reconnect and create new shared experiences, suggests Dr. Tugnait.
3. Accepting life changes
Open to the changing dynamics of your friendship. You accept that your life has changed, but remember the basic bonds that have brought you to your friends.
4. Show genuine interest
Maintain a true interest in each other’s lives. Remember important events and follow up on their experiences. This shows you respect your friendship, no matter where you are or at the time of your place.
5. Reliable
Reliability means being present at a critical event or opportunity in accordance with commitment. Consistency promotes trust and indicates that friendship is a priority for you.
6. Share past and present
It reminds me of shared childhood experiences, but incorporates them into modern life. Introducing new acquaintances and relationships to help them integrate into your adult life.
7. Please understand
Recognise that everyone is living a busy life. If you do not receive an immediate response, do not take it personally. Patience and understanding go a long way in maintaining long-term friendship.
What are the negative aspects of childhood friendship?
Childhood friendships have benefits, but can have negative consequences.
- These early relationships, which developed while social skills and emotional intelligence were still developing, can sometimes promote toxic dynamics, experts say.
- The hierarchies and ordinances that occur frequently in childhood social groups may promote feelings of exclusion or incompetence that may last up to adulthood.
- Childhood friendships can sometimes become static and rely more on shared history than current compatibility, resulting in unhappy adult encounters.
- It is also possible that these early friendships are related to childhood trauma or unpleasant experiences. This can cause emotional pain when recall.
- Relying on childhood friendships can prevent people from developing new, potentially appropriate relationships in adulthood.
Maintaining friendships in childhood offers many mental health benefits. It can improve self-understanding, reduce stress, and boost your mood through nostalgia. But we approach these long-standing relationships with a balanced mindset. Acknowledge their importance and recognize that they may no longer serve our best interests.
