A study on the construction of a scale for assessing the quality of friendship

Pages: 236-242
Prerona Ghosh, Deepshikha Ray and Sudeshna Das (Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India)

The development of successful friendship is one of the important developmental milestones and is crucial for healthy adaptation. In the context of increasing social alienation in today’s globalized world there is an emergent need to construct a reliable tool for assessing Quality of Friendship. Same-sex friendship is highly prevalent in the Indian society and is a significant contributor to an enhanced quality of life. Since, there is a dearth of a reliable tool for exploring friendship, the present study purported to construct a scale for assessing the Quality of Friendship. 370 healthy adult participants, of either sex, aged between 18-25 years were included in the study. The total sample was split into 3 sections – sample A(N = 100), on which the Quality of Friendship Questionnaire (QFQ) was constructed; sample B (N = 200), the data of which was utilized for reliability assessment and factor analysis; sample C (N = 70) on which The Relationship Profile Test (Bornstein and Languirand, 2001) and The UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, 1996) was administered for the computation of convergent validity. Preliminary norms were developed based on the scores of Sample B and Sample C. Five factors emerged from Factor Analysis, namely – ‘Intimacy’, ‘Distress reaction’, ‘Negative behavior’, ‘Doubt’ and ‘Telling a lie’ and the final scale comprised of 87 items with a high reliability (Cronbach α =0.96). Further, a significant negative correlation between ‘Quality of Friendship’ and loneliness was obtained, along with a significant positive correlation between ‘Quality of Friendship’ and healthy dependence. Continued evaluation is needed to assess the utility of the QFQ for exploring ‘Friendship’ in the paradigm of positive psychology.