Friendship is a state of emotional attachment to another person, as a result of feelings of affection. It is also a warm and intimate relationship with someone you like and trust. Friends provide a basic source of happiness, pleasure, and companionship.
The importance of friendship cannot be overstated. Friendship is important because:
• Young people learn social skills through friendship
• Provides opportunities for youth to share experiences and insights
• The skills acquired to articulate feelings and thoughts will be useful throughout life
• Promotes self-esteem
• Helps develop self-confidence
• Provides company
• Involves fun, sharing and caring
• Promotes mutual respect
• Appropriate interpersonal communication skills are developed
There are ways to develop friendship skills. These include:
• Keep secrets and build trust
• Develop understanding and empathy
• Practice active listening skills by
Yo. Make eye contact with the other person.
ii. Listen to the person without interruption.
iii. Listen to the person without thinking about what you will say next.
IV. Empathize with the person while speaking
v. Use “I” statements
However, there are behaviors and qualities that enhance friendship, these include:
• Sorry
• Confidence
• Loyalty
• Ability to keep confidences
• Cooperation
• Honesty
• Shared interests
• Support in good and bad times
• Reliability
• Empathy
• Respect
• Comprehension
• Sweetie
• Compassion
Friendship needs to be improved and the ways it can be improved are:
• Have group activities
• Sharing information
• Gift exchange
• Share goals and aspirations
• Visit each other’s family and other friends
• Dates, without expectations of shared sexual activity
• Solve tasks together
• Provide support in times of difficulty
• Make positive comments about each other
• Have fun together
Because of the importance of friendship, it is of the utmost importance that friends do whatever they can to keep their friends and make new ones. Behaviors that could destroy the friendship include:
• gossip
• Disclosure of confidential information
• Bullying
• Group pressure
• dishonesty
• Selfishness
• Suspicious
• Disrespect
• Misunderstood
• Betrayal of trust