Quality of Friendship Scale: adaptation and validation in a Mexican child population

Friendships are of great importance for children's social and emotional development and can improve their behavior, values and attitudes. Although several precedents highlight the importance of the study of friendship in children, there is little agreement on how to assess the fit or success of these studies. The objectives of this research were: a) to assess the construct validity of the Quality of Friendship Scale in a Mexican population; b) to assess the criterion validity of this scale with a measure of Empathy; c) to assess the reliability of the scale. A total of 575 (282 boys and 293 girls) primary and secondary school students between 8 and 13 years of age participated. A confirmatory factor analysis was carried out, obtaining a good fit of a three-dimensional model, namely: positive friendship, conflict and balance. Correlations between empathy and friendship are analyzed. Reliability indices were satisfactory on all three subscales. It can be considered that the instrument has adequate psychometric properties to be used in the Mexican population, which would allow the development of intervention strategies that favor the consolidation of positive bonds.