title: Perceptions of friendship among youth with distressed friends.
abstract: This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between a friend's level of internalizing distress and the focal child's perceptions of friendship amongst 5th, 8th, and 11th grade youth. Participants completed the Youth Self-Report to assess internalizing distress and measures assessing perceptions of friendship quality, social support, and self-disclosure within reciprocal, same-sex friendship dyads. Results indicated that youth with friends experiencing low levels of internalizing distress reported poorer friendship quality and decreased levels of social support and self-disclosure within the friendship compared to youth with friends experiencing average or high internalizing distress. In a second set of analyses controlling for the focal child's own internalizing symptoms, gender, and age, friend's level of internalizing distress remained a significant, unique predictor of target participants' self-disclosure about their own problems within the friendship. The findings suggest that a mild degree of internalizing distress may enhance, rather than harm, friendships amongst youth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Suffolk University, Boston, MA, 02114, USA, enhill@suffolk.edu.
authors.forename: Erin N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: Lance P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Swenson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D012650:Self Disclosure; D012938:Social Perception; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*