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Helping Kids Make Friends: What Screens Are Replacing
Two nervous girls stood alone at overnight camp drop-off. Years later, one was the other's maid of honor.
Mike McDonell, a father of four, has spent decades creating places where kids make friends, and he still worries about his youngest finding a close one. In this episode he looks at why friendship is harder to come by today and what parents can do about it. Monitoring the Future data shows 10th graders went from getting together with friends about 2.5 times a week in 1996 to about 1.5 times by 2020, with the steepest drop around 2012. A 2025 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health found…
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