Abstract

A conceptual integration of friendship and social support, explored via factor analysis, was examined in relation to adjustment in 242 undergraduate university men and women. Despite considerable overlap between theoretical components of adult friendship and social support, empirically these two areas have remained quite distinct. The present study sought to consolidate the two important research areas, looking at sex differences and the ways in which interpersonal resources can facilitate adjustment. Subjects were recruited from two local universities for this questionnaire-based study. Participants provided information about their best same-sex friend, their social network as a whole, a romantic relationship (if applicable) and various aspects of adjustment, including depression, self-esteem, quality of life and physical symptoms. Best friend and social network items, respectively, were grouped into subscales representing previously postulated dimensions of friendship and social support. These subscales were entered into exploratory factor analyses, separately for best friend and for network, to determine whether as predicted, friendship and support would combine conceptually. The factors which emerged were entered into hierarchical multiple regressions in order to investigate the connections between these relationship factors, daily hassles and adjustment. The results suggest that relationship factors, particularly those offered by a large, high-quality social network, offer protective benefits for college students. Further, having a trusted, satisfying best friendship and a high-quality romantic relationship appears to enhance certain aspects of adjustment for students as well. Daily hassles were found to detract significantly from the well-being of young men and women. From a theoretical perspective, support was gained for viewing friendship and support not as distinct constructs, but rather, as joint contributors to the phenomena of interpersonal relationships. Practical implications include the need to examine ways of helping college students with small, less than adequate social networks build larger, more beneficial sets of resources.