This study longitudinally examined associations between parent and peer relationships, childhood maltreatment, and adolescents’ psychopathology. We expected lower perceived parental relationship quality to predict greater symptomatology and higher perceived friendship quality to buffer this association, with greater buffering effects for maltreated participants. We assessed 545 participants (295 maltreated, 250 non-maltreated; 60.2% male; 52.8% Black, 27.5% White, 12.8% Bi-racial, 13.4% Latin@) across two timepoints (Wave 1, Mage = 13.8 years, Wave 2, Mage = 16.2 years). Department of Human Services records indicated maltreatment status prior to Wave 1. Adolescents self-reported Wave 1 parental relationship and friendship quality and Wave 2 internalizing/externalizing symptoms. Parental relationship quality did not predict psychopathology, and this association did not differ by maltreatment status. We found a significant three-way interaction between maternal relationship quality, maltreatment, and friendship quality on internalizing (β = .10, p = .037) and externalizing (β = .12, p = .010) symptoms. For non-maltreated adolescents, parental relationships and friendship quality differentially predicted symptomatology. Maltreated adolescents with low maternal relationship and friendship quality exhibited the most symptoms, whereas those with low maternal relationship quality and high friendship quality exhibited the least. Findings invite inquiry into parent and peer relationships’ differential roles in adolescents’ psychopathology.

Recent sociometric research has described students with special educational needs (SEN) as less accepted and experiencing more social difficulties than their classmates without SEN. This study addresses the social participation of students with moderate learning difficulties (MLD) in regular schools while also focusing on the quality of their best friendship. In this longitudinal study, 313 secondary students, including 46 with MLD, were first examined while at Grade 7 (T1) and 2 years later at Grade 9 (T2). In line with previous studies, the students with MLD held reduced peer acceptance, had fewer friendships, and engaged less often in social interactions with peers than their typically developing classmates on both administrations. However, students with MLD held positive perceptions of social self-concept and friendship quality, with the two measures being positively associated. At T2, students with MLD reported poorer socio-emotional skills, which were positively correlated with their perceptions of both social self-concept and friendship quality. The paper concludes by outlining the importance of supporting students’ socio-emotional development through implementing relevant school-based interventions.

This study examines the factors influencing friendship quality during emergent adulthood. Data were collected on a sample of 393 college students (age range 18–22, M = 20.01). Nine multi-item measures were used as indicators in this study. Seven scales were drawn from the Battery of Adolescent Measures (Benson & Faas, 2014). The other two were the pragmatic (social) language and the aloof scales, which provided sensitised assessment of interpersonal deficits (Hurley, Losh, Parlier, Reznick, & Piven, 2007). The article hypothesises that family warmth predicts friendship quality during emergent adulthood. It also hypothesises that this relationship is mediated by emergent adults’ self-perceptions and by their social competence. Structural equation models supported the first hypothesis and also showed that self-perceptions and social competence partially mediate the main relationship. We also examined each mediator separately for evidence of partial mediation, but the full model remained a significantly better fit to the data compared to both single mediator models.

Bidirectional pathways between twin relationship quality and friendship quality were investigated in a large longitudinal twin cohort. We examined negative and positive relationship features in 313 monozygotic (MZ) twins and 238 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twins from ages 13 to 14 years, using latent structural modeling. Results showed stronger stability of the twin relationship quality compared to friendship quality. Positive features in the sibling relationship were associated with increased positive features in the relationship with the best friend a year later. In contrast, no significant association between negative sibling relationship features and change in negative friendship quality features was found. These findings speak to the important role of the sibling relationship in the development of good quality friendship relations in twins.

This cross-sectional study explored the moderating influence of friendship quality and gender in the relationship between psychopathology and different types of victimisation experienced by primary school children. Five hundred and sixty-six children (n = 264 males; n = 302 females) with a mean age of 11.61 years (SD = 1.10) in Adelaide, South Australia completed the Peer Relations Questionnaire, the Relational Aggression Scale, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Friendship Quality Questionnaire. Neither overall friendship quality nor gender moderated the relationship between either direct or relational victimisation and psychopathology. However, ‘conflict and betrayal’ moderated the relationship between relational victimisation and psychopathology. For high levels of conflict and betrayal the relationship between relational victimisation and psychopathology was stronger for boys than girls. Possibly, a particular aspect of friendship quality may be more protective in the relationship between different types of victimisation and psychopathology. Implications of these results and suggestions for future research are considered.

This prospective study examines the relationship between aspects of the neighbourhood social environment and subsequent depressive symptoms in over 7,500 participants of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Neighbourhood social environment at baseline was operationalised using four items capturing social cohesion and three items capturing perceived safety and associations with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) at two-year follow-up were assessed. Friendship quality and personal sense of control were tested as mediators of this relationship using structural equation modelling. Neighbourhood social cohesion was found to be associated with reporting fewer depressive symptoms independent of demographic and socioeconomic factors and baseline depressive symptoms. Friendship quality and sense of control mediated this association. The study highlights that greater personal sense of control, higher quality friendships and fewer depressive symptoms are found in neighbourhoods seen to be characterised by higher social cohesion.