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Operationalizing the Construct of Friendship among Children: A Psychometric Comparison of Sociometric‐Based Definitional Methodologies
Author(s) -
Erdley Cynthia A.,
Nangle Douglas W.,
Gold Joel A.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
social development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.078
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1467-9507
pISSN - 0961-205X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9507.00051
Subject(s) - friendship , nomination , operationalization , psychology , concordance , social psychology , construct (python library) , developmental psychology , likert scale , sociometry , rating scale , medicine , philosophy , epistemology , political science , computer science , law , programming language
Peer relations researchers generally agree that friendship involves a close, mutual, dyadic relationship. However, the lack of consensus on how to operationalize this construct has limited our understanding of the role of friendship in social adjustment. The present study directly compared the psychometric properties (i.e., number of friendships identified, concordances, and stability) of the five major different definitions of friendship used in the literature. Fourth‐ and fifth‐grade students (N = 90) completed a battery of sociometric measures at two different times separated by eight weeks. Friendship dyads were then identified using the following definitional criteria: (1) mutual positive nominations; (2) mutal high ratings (i.e., 4 or 5 on a five‐point Likert‐type scale); (3) one positive nomination reciprocated by a rating of 5; (4) one positive nomination and mutual high ratings; and (5) one positive nomination and mutual ratings averaging at least 4. Frequency and concordance analyses indicated differences across the five definitions. In addition, the friendships identified by each of the five definitions were similarly moderate in their stability. Explanations for, and the possible implications of, these differences are discussed.