Friendship is one of life's most essential and rewarding forms of interaction--a feature of every culture that most persons experience daily. While most research efforts on friendship have concentrated on such issues as peer acceptance and dyadic properties, there has been little exploration of friendship's role in a child's social and emotional growth. The Company They Keep provides a forum in which a group of internationally recognized scholars presents the major conceptual issues, themes, goals, methodological strategies and findings from their research on friendship. Contributors explore a variety of topics, including cultural variations in childrens' and adolescents' friendships, the association between friendship and cognitive and personality development, the effect of friendship on adjustment, and the links between experience within the family and relationships with friends.