Abstract
We explored third‐ to fifth‐grade children’s friendship concepts in 20 autistic and 21 nonautistic students matched for mental age. Transcripts of semi‐structured interviews were coded for definitions of friendship, friendship expectations, and friendship transgressions (i. e., violations of friendship expectations), and subjected to quantitative content analysis. Findings demonstrated that children’s definitions of friendship were largely aligned with their views on friendship expectations and transgressions. Kindness was significantly less salient to autistic children’s definitions of friendship than for their nonautistic peers; otherwise, the two groups showed conceptualizations of friendship that were quite similar. Findings have implications for practitioners and researchers seeking to support autistic children’s friendship experiences and bring to light important considerations for researchers seeking to better understand autistic friendship experiences.