Does Your Child Have at Least One Friend Who Might Not Even Like Her That Much?

Here’s something crushing that’s also technically good news, I guess:

Just one friend is enough, a new observational study suggests, to buffer an anxious, withdrawn child against depression. And it doesn’t have to be a particularly close friend — not an intimate or a confidant, as an adult would understand it, just some kind of social connection with someone their own age. Having at least one friend — defined as someone who counted them as a friend in return — seemed to put the brakes on the downward slide toward depression during the pre-teenage years.

Growing up is easy, graceful, and fun.