Friendship Qualities and Their Associations with Social, Emotional, and Behavioural Functioning in Military-Connected Youth

Abstract

The present study examined the best friendships and the social, emotional, and behavioural functioning of youth from Canadian military families. Further, it examined how the positive and negative qualities of these friendships were related to the behavioural and mental health outcomes measured. Online surveys were administered to 31 military-connected youth to assess internalizing, externalizing, overall problems, and the characteristics and qualities of their best friendships. The results revealed that the average scores for all outcomes were comparable to civilian peers. However, a large minority of participants had elevated internalizing scores. Further, it was found that the best friendships of these military-connected youth were characterized by more positive qualities than negative qualities. Finally, both positive and negative friendship qualities predicted externalizing scores, but they did not predict internalizing scores. Interpretations, implications and limitation of these findings are presented, as are suggestions for future research.