Abstract
Studies have shown the potential value of social support in altering the progression of various forms of psychopathology. While best friendships represent an important element of social support, their development and associations with mental health status in young adulthood is not well understood. The present study provided unique data regarding MMPI-2 that correlates with the closeness, maintenance difficulty, and rewards of the best friendships described by 398 young adult men and women. The finding of 57 (31%) significant (p < .05) correlations suggested extensive covariation (Cohen d effect sizes ranging from .28 to .72) between MMPI-2 scale indicators of mental health concerns and the best friendship qualities measured by the Acquaintance Description Form (Wright in (Duck, Perlman (eds.) The acquaintance description form, 1985). Four of the ADF-F2 scales (security, social regulation, personal, and situational maintenance difficulty) were found strongly related to selected MMPI-2 (F, Sc and K) features. D, Pt, and Hs scores predicted lower levels of best friendship security along with higher situational maintenance difficulty. The MMPI-2 personality disorder scales (Pd and Hy) provided weak predictors of best friendship qualities. Gender differences in the nature of these relationships were minimal. Empirical relationships between friendship qualities and mental health status in childhood and young adulthood appear to warrant closer systematic attention in the psychological literature.
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Appendices
Appendix A
Acquaintance Description Form (ADF-2) scale descriptions and sample item
Scale | Interpretation guidelines | |
|---|---|---|
Measures of relationship strength | ||
INT | Voluntary interdependence | Level of commitment to interact with friend apart from external pressures or constraints |
Item 39: If I decided to leave town on a certain day for a leisurely trip or vacation and discovered that my best friend was leaving for the place a day later, I would strongly consider waiting a day in order to travel together. | ||
PQP | Person–Qua–Person | Degree to which friend seen as a personalized (unique, genuine, irreplaceable) interest |
Item 26: My best friend expresses so many personal qualities I like that I think of him or her as being “on of a kind,” a truly unique person. | ||
Measures of interpersonal rewards | ||
UTI | Utility value | Degree to which friend willing to extend time and resources to help respondent meet personal needs or objectives |
Item 2: If I were short of cash and needed money in a hurry, I could count on my best friend to be willing to loan it to me. | ||
STI | Stimulation value | Degree to which friend regarded as interesting, stimulating, and capable of fostering an expansion or elaboration of knowledge, perspectives, or repertoire of favored activities |
Item 1: My best friend can come up with thoughts and ideas that give me new and different things to think about. | ||
Acquaintance Description Form (ADF-2) scale descriptions | ||
EGO | Ego support value | Degree to which friend regarded as encouraging, reassuring, and apt to reinforce feelings of competence and self-worth |
Item 6: If I accomplish something that makes me look especially competent or skillful I can count on my best friend to notice it and appreciate my ability. | ||
AFF | Self-affirmation value | Degree to which friend facilitates the recognition and expression of the respondent’s highly valued attributes |
Item 17: My best friend is the kind of person who makes it easy for me to express my true thoughts and feelings. | ||
SEC | Security value | Degree to which friend regarded as safe and trustworthy without risk of exposing respondent to embarrassment, unwelcome attention, or unflattering features |
Item 51: When I am with my best friend I feel free to “let my guard down” completely because he or she avoids doing and saying things that might make me look inadequate or inferior. | ||
Measures of tension/strain (maintenance difficulty) | ||
PMD | Personal maintenance difficulty | Degree to which relationship is frustrating, inconvenient, or unpleasant due to friend’s habits, mannerisms, or personal characteristics |
Item 33: I have to be very careful about what I say if I try to talk to my best friend about topics that he or she considers controversial or touchy. | ||
Acquaintance Description Form (ADF-2) scale descriptions | ||
SMD | Situational maintenance difficulty | Degree to which relationship is frustrating, inconvenient, or unpleasant due to factors that are circumstantial or impersonal |
Item 28: Because of circumstances that neither my best friend nor I can do anything about there is quite a bit of tension and strain in our relationship. | ||
Relationship differentiation scales | ||
EXC | Exclusiveness | Degree to which relationship as strictly dyadic by claiming proprietary access to specified forms of interaction and mutual activity |
Item 60: Because I regard my relationship with my best friend to be a “one and only” arrangement, I would be very disappointed if I found out that he or she had developed the same basic type of relationship with anyone else. | ||
PER | Permanence | Degree to which relationship is permanently bound and thus difficult or inappropriate to dissolve in the event of changing circumstances |
Item 27: I consider my relationship with my best friend to be so permanent that if he or she had to move to a distant city for some reason I would move to the same city to keep the relationship going. | ||
EXP | Salience of emotional expression | Degree to which regards overt expressions of positive affect, affection, and personal appreciation toward the friend as essential to the relationship |
Item 64: If I were to list the most important aspects of my relationship with my best friend, positive emotional experiences are among the things I would include. | ||
Acquaintance Description Form (ADF-2) scale descriptions | ||
SOC | Social regulation | Degree to which specified forms of interaction in the relationship are influenced by social norms and the expectations of relevant others |
Item 38: Many of my acquaintances have such definite ideas about the responsibilities that go along with my relationship with my best friend that they would strongly disapprove if I did not live up to them. | ||
Appendix B
MMPI-2 test Manual interpretive possibilities for extreme scale elevations (T > 75)
Scale | Interpretive possibilities |
|---|---|
L (Lie) | Test resistance or naivete |
F (Infrequency) | Uncooperative, faking bad, marginal reading ability |
K (Correction) | Shy, inhibited, lacking emotional involvement, reliance on denial, lack of insight |
1 (Hs: Hypochondriasis) | Schizoid, bizarre bodily or somatic delusions, constricted, immobilized by multiple symptoms and complaints |
2 (D: Depression) | Withdrawn, overwhelmed with problems, hopelessness, guilt-ridden, feelings of unworthiness and inadequacy |
3 (Hy: Conversion Hysteria) | Highly suggestible, sudden anxiety and panic episodes, uninhibited, infantile tantrums, reacts to shame by developing physical symptoms |
4 (Pd: Psychopathic Deviate) | Poor judgment, unstable, irresponsible, self-centered and immature, antisocial actions, aggressive or assaultive |
5 (Mf: Masculinity-Femininity) | Traditional opposite-gender interest patterns |
6 (Pa: Paranoia) | Thought disorder, mistaken beliefs, ideas of reference, vengeful and brooding, may act upon delusions |
7 (Pt: Psychasthenia) | Ruminating, rigid rituals, agitation, superstitious phobias, feelings of guilt, fearful, anxiety, depression |
8 (Sc: Schizophrenia) | Disordered thinking, eccentric behaviors, delusional, socially seclusive, poor contact with reality, hallucinatory |
9 (Ma: Hypomania) | Expansive and grandiose, irritable, poor temper control, hyperactive and distractible, impulsive decisions, confusion |
0 (Si: Social Introversion) | Withdrawn, aloof, insecure, indecisive, ruminative, retiring |
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King, A.R., Terrance, C. Best Friendship Qualities and Mental Health Symptomatology Among Young Adults. J Adult Dev 15, 25–34 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-007-9031-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-007-9031-6