Are Liking and Friend Nominations Interchangeable in the Identification of Friendship?

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Methods, History, Theory

Abstract

Introduction
Friendship and group status among school-aged children are almost always assessed with nomination or rating procedures. Friend assessments prototypically ask “who is your friend?”, whereas likeability assessments prototypically ask “who do you like?” Variants of each, however, are often used interchangeably to identify friends. Some scholars argue that because friendship is more exclusive than liking, the two should be assessed using construct specific questions (Parker and Asher, 1993). The present study examines whether responses to these questions are truly interchangeable. We examined the extent to which assessments of friendship and assessments of liking identify the same friends in samples of Canadian and US primary school children.
Method
Participants in the first study included 551 (45% female) French-Canadian 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders (ages 8-11). Liking was assessed with the question “Who do you like to play with the most?” Participants identified up to three classmates, in rank order. Friendship was assessed with the question “Who are your best friends?” Participants identified up to four classmates, in rank order.
Participants in the second study included 416 (56% female) U.S. 4th and 5th graders (ages 9-11). Participants attended schools that were required by statute to represent the state of Florida in terms of ethnicity and family income. Using a roster-rating procedure (Singleton & Asher, 1977), participants rated all same-sex classmates (“how much do you like this person?”) on a scale ranging from 1 (“do not like this person”) to 5 (“like this person very much"). Friendship was assessed with the question “Who are your best friends?” Participants identified an unlimited number of same-sex friends, in rank order.

Results

Table 1 describes the concordance between friend nominations and liking nominations in the identification of friends. All measures of concordance were statistically significant (p<.001) at each grade. Individuals nominated as friends also tended to be nominated as liked peers. Adjusted Kappa coefficients were highest for top choice friends, declining slightly (although remaining high) for top two and top three nominated friends.
Table 2 describes the concordance between friend nominations and preference ratings in the identification of friends. All measures of concordance were statistically significant (p<.001) at each grade. Individuals nominated as friends also tended to be rated as liked peers. There was greater convergence when friendships were restricted to most liked nominees (i.e., ratings of 5) than for ratings of liked nominees (i.e., ratings of 4 or 5).

Discussion
Scholars are often advised that friendship and liking need to be measured separately because one is a measure of relationships and the other a measure of group standing (Rubin, Bukowski, & Bowker, 2015). Although we agree with this advice, we know that it is not always possible to squeeze both measures into large longitudinal projects. We found that most top ranked friends were also nominated and rated as liked peers, suggesting that measures of liking and preference can also be used to identify friendships. The results were often strongest for top-ranked friends, an important caveat for scholars who may be thinking of adopting this data collection strategy.

Authors

• Robert Altman, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author

• Fanny-Alexandra Guimond, University of Ottawa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mary Page Leggett-James, Florida Atlantic University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Frank Vitaro, Université de Montréal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mara Brendgen, L'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brett Laursen, Florida Atlantic University
  Non-Presenting Author