Relations between friendship (operationalized as reciprocated or nonreciprocated sociometric choices) and social competence were studied for children (mostly African American) attending Head Start. Initial analyses showed that children with reciprocated friends had higher social competence scores than children without reciprocated friends. Correlations suggested that the number of reciprocated friendships was associated with the social competence indicators studied here. Beyond the cost of having no reciprocated friends, having nonreciprocated friendships was not a liability. Cross-time analyses suggested differing patterns of relations for boys and girls. Having versus not having a reciprocated friend was unstable across time, because there was a trend toward participating in reciprocated friendships from 3 to 4 years of age (most older children had at least 1 reciprocated friend). For girls there was a positive relation between the number of reciprocated friendships at Time 1 and at Time 2. No benefit (in terms of social competence) was found for children making the transition from 1 classroom to the next with a friend.

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This study examined the role of social support provided by spouse, friends, and relatives on relationships between strains and depressive affect among women. Strains from three life domains - financial, marital, and parental - were included. Moderated multiple regression analyses addressed main effect, buffering, and coping hypotheses regarding the role of social support. Results indicated that social support operated differently depending on the source of support and type of strain experienced. Generally, results were consistent with main effect and coping hypotheses. Only support provided by relatives played a significant moderating role in the strain - outcome relationship.

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