Det hadde vel vært bedre da om jeg hadde hatt venner: En kvalitativ studie av ungdoms vennskaps og medelev relasjoner i skolesamfunnet

Abstract

This article is trying to grasp three informants' experiences of friendship and peer relationships in the school society, in order to understand more about the mechanisms of friendship and interaction during adolescence. The interviews were conducted through an indirect approach, described as an unstructured interview more like a informal conversation, trying to get answers to questions not asked. The article is produced as part of an Erasmus+ project with partners from Norway, England and Denmark. The data were analyzed through a thematic analysis, and the informants experiences of friendship and fellow student relationships were clustered around three themes: (1) the fight in and about friendship, (2) experiences of roles, (3) in or out the «flock». The narratives show how important friendship and peer relationship are for young people at school, and that these relationships were especially fragile in secondary school. The informants described the struggle for friendship, and that they felt that they possessed a role, from which they could not escape. Some of these fragile relationships eventually led to exclusion or inclusion, and even marginalized some out of the school society.