Popularity, Friendship Quantity, and Friendship Quality: Interactive Influences on Children's Loneliness and Depression
- 1 November 2003
- journal article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology
- Vol. 32 (4), 546-555
- https://doi.org/10.1207/s15374424jccp3204_7
Abstract
A mediational model positing that the effects of popularity on children's loneliness and depression are passed through indexes of friendship experiences was tested using structural equation modeling. Children (193 3rd through 6th graders) completed a battery of sociometric and self-report questionnaires from which measures of popularity, multiple friendship dimensions (i.e., quantity and quality of best and good friendships), and loneliness and depression were derived. Confirmation of a slightly modified model supported the mediational hypothesis. Although popularity exerted no direct impact on the adjustment indexes, it strongly influenced friendship, which, in turn, affected depression through its strong association with loneliness. It appears that popularity is important for setting the stage for relationship development, but that it is dyadic friendship experiences that most directly influence feelings of loneliness and depression.Keywords
This publication has 26 references indexed in Scilit:
- Operationalizing the Construct of Friendship among Children: A Psychometric Comparison of Sociometric‐Based Definitional MethodologiesSocial Development, 1998
- Associations between Peer Relationships and Depressive SymptomsThe Journal of Early Adolescence, 1997
- Popularity as an Affordance for Friendship: The Link Between Group and Dyadic Experience*Social Development, 1996
- Friends' Influence on Adolescents' Adjustment to SchoolChild Development, 1995
- Training outpatient boys to conform with social ecology of popular peers: Effects on parent and teacher ratingsJournal of Clinical Child Psychology, 1995
- Children's peer relations: A meta-analytic review of popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, and average sociometric status.Psychological Bulletin, 1993
- Normative and reliability data for the children's depression inventoryJournal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 1986
- Children's perceptions of friendships as supportive relationships.Developmental Psychology, 1986
- Children's loneliness: A comparison of rejected and neglected peer status.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1985
- Age changes and changes over time in prosocial intentions and behavior between friends.Developmental Psychology, 1981