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theses

The current study explored friendship among the emerging adult population by investigating two aspects of appreciation from Adler & Fagley’s (2005) appreciation model, gratitude and interpersonal appreciation, and their relations with friendship quality and life satisfaction. Both aspects of appreciation are related to enhanced social connections, including romantic relationships (e.g., Gordon et. al, 2012) and friendships (e.g., Lambert & Fincham, 2011). In addition, high quality friendships are associated with well-being (e.g., Demir & Wetekamp, 2007; Raboteg-Saric, & Sakic, 2013). Thus, the primary purpose of the research was to determine if friendship quality could potentially mediate the relationship between either of the aspects and life satisfaction while controlling for gender and the Big Five personality factors. Participants (N = 357) were undergraduate students at Rutgers University who completed an anonymous online survey. All partial correlations (controlling for gender and personality) were significant. Gratitude was positively associated with friendship quality (partial r = .315, p < .001), as was interpersonal appreciation (partial r = .194, p < .001). Gratitude was positively related to life satisfaction (partial r = .132, p < .05), as was interpersonal appreciation (partial r = .126, p < .05). Friendship quality was also positively related to life satisfaction (partial r = .143, p <.01). Two tests of mediation were conducted separately to analyze each aspect of appreciation. The Sobel tests of mediation revealed that friendship quality significantly mediated the relationship between interpersonal appreciation and life satisfaction (Z = 1.96, p = .050). Friendship quality was not found to mediate the relationship between gratitude and life satisfaction (Z = 1.93, p = .053). Follow-up tests of the significant interpersonal model and exploratory analyses of the gratitude model were conducted that examined individual aspects of friendship quality as possible mediators, rather than overall friendship quality. Gender and personality were controlled in all analyses. Only the self-validation aspect of friendship quality significantly mediated the relationship between interpersonal appreciation and life satisfaction. Findings from the present study add to research on interpersonal appreciation and suggest interpersonal appreciation may influence life satisfaction of emerging adults through strengthening friendship quality.

ETD_10419

Psy.D.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-scnt-gt93

ETD doctoral

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