USING RATING-SCALE AND NOMINATION TECHNIQUES TO MEASURE FRIENDSHIP AND POPULARITY

The associations between measures of friendship and popularity derived from nomination and rating scales procedures were studied with a samp le of school-age and early adolescent boys and girls. Confirmatory fac tor analyses and comparisons of the correlations among these measures showed that each of these techniques can provide parallel measures of popularity (i.e. sociometric preference) and friendship (i.e. whether the child is participating in a mutual friendship). These findings are discussed in regard to measurement issues in the study of friendship and popularity.