Peer relationships and quality of life in 11–12-year-old children: The Health Oriented Pedagogical Project (HOPP)

Abstract

Aims: Social interactions play an important role in our everyday life. Studies on children’s quality of life (QoL) show that peer relations are associated with both positive and negative outcomes. Popularity defines the degree to which a child is liked by his or her peers, whereas reciprocal friendship occurs when two children mutually nominate each other as friends. The overall aim was to examine associations between peer relations and children’s QoL. Methods: Baseline data were from the Health Oriented Pedagogical Project (HOPP). From a sample of 2297, 691 children aged 11–12 years participated. QoL was measured using the Norwegian version of the Inventory of Life Quality in Children and Adolescents (ILC). Popularity and friendship variables were based on number of nominations and represent quantitative features of peer relationships. Results: Both popularity and reciprocal friendship had a positive association with children’s QoL. Number of nominations (both for popularity and reciprocal friendship) played a significant role for the above-mentioned associations. Consequently, popularity (β = 0.18) and reciprocal friendship (β = 0.25) were associated with children’s QoL with 95% CIs of 0.12–0.27 and 0.17–0.31, respectively. Conclusions: Findings from the current study contribute to contemporary research focused on children’s QoL. Being able to rank reciprocal friendships, as well as recognizing that having more than one reciprocal friendship increases QoL, is important and could be beneficial for developing programs that promote high QoL, hence preventing possible maladjustments in a long-term perspective.