Friendship habits questionnaire: A measure of group- versus dyadic-oriented socializing styles

Howlett, Philip; Baysu, Gülseli; Atkinson, Anthony P.; Jungert, Tomas; Rychlowska, Magdalena

Abstract

Friendships are central to our social lives, yet little is known about individual differences associated with the number of friends people enjoy spending time with. Here we present the Friendship Habits Questionnaire (FHQ), a new scale of group versus dyadic-oriented friendship styles. Three studies investigated the psychometric properties of group-oriented friendships and the relevant individual differences. The initially developed questionnaire measured individual differences in extraversion as well as desire for intimacy, competitiveness, and group identification, traits that previous research links with socializing in groups versus one-to-one friendships. In three validation studies involving more than 800 participants (353 men, age M = 25.76) and using principal and confirmatory factor analyses, we found that the structure of the FHQ is best described with four dimensions: extraversion, intimacy, positive group identification, and negative group identification. Therefore, competitiveness was dropped from the final version of the FHQ. Moreover, FHQ scores reliably predicted the size of friendship groups in which people enjoy socializing, suggesting good construct validity. Together, our results document individual differences in pursuing group versus dyadic-oriented friendships and provide a new tool for measuring such differences.

Citation

Howlett, P., Baysu, G., Atkinson, A. P., Jungert, T., & Rychlowska, M. (2023). Friendship habits questionnaire: A measure of group- versus dyadic-oriented socializing styles. PLoS ONE, 18(6), Article e0285767. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285767

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 29, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jun 28, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: Jun 28, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 30, 2023
• Journal: PLoS ONE
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 6
• Article Number: e0285767
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285767