Adolescent perceptions of friendship and their associations with individual adjustment

Abstract

This study of 282 dyads examines early- and mid-adolescents’ perceptions of friendship quality and their association with daily disagreements, self- and mother reports of behaviour problems, and school grades. Actor and partner analyses identify unique associations between perceptions of friendship quality and perceptions of daily conflict. Actor effects reveal links between friendship negativity and self-perceptions of conflict affective intensity, relationship impact, post-conflict interaction, and post-conflict separation, and between friendship positivity and self-perceptions of relationship impact. Partner effects reveal links between friendship negativity and partner perceptions of conflict outcomes. Perceptions of relationship quality were also associated with self- and mother reports of behaviour problems and with school grades, such that individual and dyadic views of friendship negativity were linked to detrimental outcomes. The worst outcomes tended to be reserved for dyads in which one or both friends reported high levels of relationship negativity.