Development of a scale to assess individual differences in children's trust-value basis of friendship / Cathy J. Morgan.

Abstract

Rotenberg (1986, 1991) has shown that children acquire a "trustvalue" basis of friendship, whereby friendship is a function of how much a child believes a peer will keep secrets, promises and tell the truth. The purpose of the present study is to examine the notion advanced by Rotenberg (1991) that there may be individual differences in the importance children assign to the trust-value basis of friendship. This was accomplished by constructing a scale (Rotenberg-Morgan Trust- Value Friendship Questionnaire) for the measurement of individual differences for two related but distinct aspects of children’s friendships: (a) friendship preferences and (b) actual friendships. The study was also designed to assess the reliability and validity of this scale. One hundred and thirty children (70 girls and 60 boys) from fifth and sixth grade were obtained through parental consent to participate in the study. The children were administered three questionnaires: (1) Rotenberg-Morgan Trust-Value Friendship Questionnaire, (2) Chumship Checklist, and (3) a Values of Friendship Scale. The latter two questionnaires served as validity measures for the scale developed. Approximately one month later, a subsample of children (103) were given the Rotenberg-Morgan Trust-Value Friendship Questionnaire as a measure of test-retest reliability. Factor analysis of the Rotenberg- Morgan Trust-Value Friendship Questionnaire for the first testing yielded three factors for both friendship preferences and actual friendships: (a) trust confirming, (b) trust violating and (c) school trust. Analysis of the second testing yielded highly similar factors having acceptable test-retest reliability and internal consistency with the exception of school trust for friendship preferences. In support of the validity of the scale, school trust for friendship preferences and trust confirming for actual friendships correlated positively with the Chumship Checklist and trust confirming for actual friendships correlated positively with dependability.