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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 8
Publication Date: August 25, 2021
DOI:10.14738/assrj.88.10657. Yongmei, H., & Jiaxin, K. (2021). The Standard of Selecting Friends and its Effect on Friendship Quality Among College Students.
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(8). 230-239.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
The Standard of Selecting Friends and its Effect on Friendship
Quality Among College Students
Hou Yongmei
Department of Psychology
School of Humanity and Administration, Guangdong Medical University
Dongguan 523808, Guangdong Province, China
Kuang Jiaxin
Department of Psychology
School of Humanity and Administration, Guangdong Medical University
Dongguan 523808, Guangdong Province, China
ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the present status of standard of selecting friends and
friendship quality, and analyze the effect of standard of selecting friends on
friendship quality among undergraduates. Methods A random sampling was used
to select 1002 undergraduates through Internet in Guangdong province. They were
investigated with Standard of Selecting Friend Scale for College Students (SSFS) and
McGill Friendship Questionnaire (MFQ). Results (1) The friendship quality of
undergraduates was relatively high, with MFQ total score of (254.16±38.80). (2) The
most important standards of selecting friends were mutual compatibility and
complementarity, followed by personality, physiology condition, social conditions
and other conditions. (3) Multivariable stepwise linear regression showed that the
total score of MFQ was positively correlated with the following 4 factors such as
mutual compatibility and complementarity, personality, as well as other conditions
(β=.477~.690,all P<.001). Conclusion The overall level of friendship quality
among undergraduates is relatively high. Mutual characteristics may be related
factors of friendship quality.
Keywords: College Students, Friendship Quality, Standard of selecting friends,
Multivariable Stepwise Linear Regression
The main content of college students' life is school life. They contact peers of the same age most
frequently. The influence of peers on college students is increasingly important [1], which even
exceeds the influence of parents and teachers, and becomes the most important source of
interpersonal influence for college students.
Friendship reflects the emotional connection characterized by trust between two parties.
Friendship quality is a common indicator to measure peer relationship and refers to the degree
of companionship, support, conflict, intimacy and security between friends [2]. Persistence,
intimacy and stability are not only the characteristics of friendship, but also the important
indicators to measure the quality of friendship [2]. Higher friendship quality can not only
provide necessary social support (such as interpersonal care) for individuals, as a protective
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Yongmei, H., & Jiaxin, K. (2021). The Standard of Selecting Friends and its Effect on Friendship Quality Among College Students. Advances in Social
Sciences Research Journal, 8(8). 230-239.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.88.10657
factor, regulate the adverse effects of risk factors on individuals [3], maintain physiological
balance and physical health [4], but also enable individuals to actively deal with setbacks and
failures, avoid the formation of deviant peer relationship [5], reduce social anxiety [2], social
avoidance [2], interpersonal conflict [4], interpersonal aggression [6], smoking [7] and other
behavioral problems, reduce depression, loneliness, autism and other emotional problems [8-
10], help to enhance individuals’ self-worth, and promote their growth and development [11].
Friendship quality is influenced by many factors, such as personal life events [12], emotion [13],
personality characteristics [14-15], social media usage [16], social information and social
support provided by both parties [17], etc. Although the above factors are important,
friendship, since it is a close and long-term companion relationship established by both sides
in the communication, naturally involves mutual attraction and the equal status in the
relationship. So the quality of friendship should be closely related to the subjective evaluation
of each other's characteristics, which is to say, how much the qualities of the other party meet
their standard for choosing friends.
Based on the above analysis, this study intends to understand the main standards of choosing
friends and their impact on the quality of friendship among undergraduates.
OBJECTS AND METHODS
Objects
Questionnaires are released to college students through Internet. 1078 questionnaires were
collected, including 1002 valid ones, with an effective rate of 92.9%. There are 508 boys and
494 girls; 221 freshmen, 214 sophomores, 201 juniors, 185 seniors and 181 fifth-year students;
617 only children and 385 non only children; 305 city students, 262 town students and 435
rural students.
Tools
Standard of Selecting Friend Scale for College Students (SSFS)
Compiled by Luo Jing (2002) [18]. SSFS has 20 items, which are divided into five dimensions:
social conditions (SC, including political, economic and cultural conditions), physiological
conditions (PC, including appearance and health status), personality traits (PT), mutual
compatibility and complementarity (MCC), and other conditions (OC). Likert 5-point scoring
method is used to score from 1 to 5 points corresponding to “very important” to “not
considered”. The higher the score, the less important the dimension (item) is. In this study,
Cronbach'a coefficient of the total scale is 0.820, and Cronbach'a coefficients of the five
dimensions are 0.743, 0.776, 0.751, 0.753 and 0.739, respectively.
McGill Friendship Questionnaire (MFQ)
Compiled by Mendelsonand Aboudd (1999) [19] and revised by Wang Danwei (2010) [20] into
Chinese version. MFQ has 37 items, divided into two subscales: MFQ-Respondent's Affection
(MFQ-RA) and MFQ-Friendship's Functions (MFQ-FF). MFQ-RA is used to measure the overall
situation of friendship quality, which has two dimensions: positive emotion and satisfaction.
MFQ-FF is used to measure the specific situation of friendship quality, which has four
dimensions: intimacy, self confirmation, solidity of friendship and friend’s help. Likert 9-point
scoring method is adopted in MFQ-RA to score from -4 to 4 points corresponding to “very
disagree” to “very agree”. Likert 9-point scoring method is adopted in MFQ-FF to score from 0
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 8, August-2021
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
to 8 points corresponding to “never” to “always”. The higher the score, the more obvious the
tendency of the subjects in this dimension (item).
In this study, Cronbach'a coefficient of the total scale is 0.913, Cronbach'a coefficients of the two
subscales are 0.834 and 0.877, respectively; and Cronbach'a coefficients of six dimensions are
0.743-0.816.
Data Processing
SPSS 20.0 software is used for statistical analysis. The main statistical methods are descriptive
statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and multivariate stepwise linear regression analysis.
RESULTS
The status of friendship quality of College Students
It can be seen from Table 1 that the total score and scores of two dimensions of MFQ-RA of this
group are greater than 0, while the theoretical median score of MFQ-RA is 0, so the respondent's
affection of this group is at a relatively high level; The total score of MFQ-FF and the scores of
six dimensions of this group are all greater than 6, while the theoretical median score of MFQ- FF scores is 4, so the satisfaction of friendship function of this group is also at a relatively high
level.
Table 1 Descriptive statistics of MFQ scores (n = 1002)
Dimension N M SD MIN MAX
Average of MFQ-RA 1002 2.44 0.95 -9 26
Satisfaction with friendship 1002 2.55 1.05 -25 7
Positive emotion 1002 2.38 1.14 -13 19
Average of MFQ-FF 1002 6.73 1.44 39 142
Intimacy 1002 6.56 1.34 14 47
Self confirmation 1002 6.97 1.25 9 52
The solidity of friendship 1002 7.19 1.56 10 24
Friend’s help 1002 6.36 1.48 16 33
Average of MFQ 1002 5.08 1.27 23 157
The importance ranking of college students' standards for choosing friends
The selection frequency of each importance level of five dimensions of SSFS
Importance level refers to the five scoring levels set by SSFS to evaluate the importance of each
standard for choosing friends, which are level 1 (very important), level 2 (relatively important),
level 3 (general), level 4 (not very important) and level 5 (not considered). Selection frequency
refers to the number of people who choose a certain scoring level. The selection frequency of
each importance level of 5 dimensions of SSFS is shown in Table 2 to Table 6.