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Social interaction and development of friendships between children with and without a disability are often proposed as potential outcomes of inclusive education. Physical activity specialists assert that exercise and sport environments may be conducive to social and friendship outcomes. This study investigated friendship in inclusive physical education from the perspective of students with (n = 8) and without (n = 8) physical disabilities. All participants attended a reversely integrated school and were interviewed using a semistructured, open-ended format. An adapted version of Weiss, Smith, and Theeboom’s (1996) interview guide exploring perceptions of peer relationships in the sport domain was used. Four conceptual categories emerged from the analysis: development of friendship, best friend, preferred physical activities and outcomes, and dealing with disability. The results demonstrated the key characteristics of best friends and the influential role they play.

The effect of selected aspects of sport involvement on children's friendship expectations (FEs) was investigated by having 80 sport-involved children, grouped equally by gender from ages 9 through 12, complete a 40-item Likert questionnaire. The questionnaire contained eight FEs adapted to each of five discrete sport contexts reflecting team-sport involvement, team-sport non-involvement, same-team membership, opposing-team membership, and poorer players. MANOVAs showed that the sport context was the principal effect. Posttesting revealed that the children agreed that team sport and same-team membership promotes friendship relations. They were relatively undecided whether non-involvement, opposite-team membership, or lack of skill interferes with friendship relations, although they agreed that the poorer player has more friendship problems in sport. Age, sex, and FE item interactions were comparatively small. Older children were more tolerant of the effects of opposing-team membership, older girls were more tolerant of lack of skill, and FE contrasts between sport contexts had good construct validity.

This study tested a model describing the relationships among perceptions of peer relationships, physical self-worth, affective responses toward physical activity, and physical activity motivation. The model was grounded in Harter’s (1978,1981a, 1986,1987) theoretical perspective, proposing that perceptions of peer relationships (i.e., friendship, peer acceptance) would predict physical activity motivation via affect and physical self-worth. Adolescents (N = 418, ages 12–15 years) completed a battery of questionnaires that assessed the study variables. Results of structural equation modeling analyses supported the overall model and most of the hypothesized direct and indirect relationships among variables for both female and male samples. Examination of alternative models suggested that some expected relationships might have been suppressed by a high correlation between the friendship and peer-acceptance constructs. However, alternative models also showed that these constructs independently contribute to predicting motivational variables. The results illustrate the importance of peer relationships to adolescent physical activity motivation.

The role of peers has been neglected in research on youth psychosocial development in sport. The purpose of the present study was to develop and validate a measure of youth sport friendship quality for the purpose of facilitating such research. Dimensions and higher order themes found in Weiss, Smith, and Theeboom’s (1996) qualitative study of sport friendships among children and adolescents, as well as a core set of items from previous research (Parker & Asher, 1993), were used to develop and refine items for a sport friendship quality scale. Over the course of three studies, content, factorial, and construct validity, as well as internal consistency and test-retest reliability, were demonstrated for the Sport Friendship Quality Scale (SFQS). Future research is recommended to examine the role of children’s sport friendship quality on psychosocial development in the physical domain.

The purpose of the current investigation was to examine friendship quality with a best friend in youth disability sport with an international sample of moderately experienced athletes with disabilities ages 9 to 18 years. Participants were 85 males and 65 females from four countries who competed in track and field and swimming. Data were collected with the Sport Friendship Quality Scale (Weiss & Smith, 1999). An exploratory factor analyses indicated that participants viewed their friendship quality with a best friend in disability sport as having both positive and negative dimensions. The latter focused exclusively on conflict experiences. Females reported stronger perceptions of the benefits of their friendships than males did; whereas no gender differences occurred in perceptions of the negative aspects to friendships. Item analyses indicated that females scored higher than males on questions reflecting loyalty, providing intimacy, self-esteem, supportiveness, having things in common, and playing together.

The purpose of this study was to examine age and gender differences in the quality of sport friendship, assess the relationship between friendship quality and motivation related variables, and obtain additional support for the validity of the Sport Friendship Quality Scale (SFQS; Weiss & Smith, 1999). Tennis players (N = 191, ages 10–18 years) completed the SFQS and other measures salient to the questions of the study. A MANOVA revealed that adolescent athletes ages 14–18 years rated loyalty and intimacy, things in common, and conflict higher than did younger players, ages 10–13 years, who in turn rated companionship and pleasant play higher. Girls rated self-esteem enhancement and supportiveness, loyalty and intimacy, and things in common higher than did boys, who rated conflict higher. Regression analysis indicated that companionship and pleasant play, conflict resolution, and things in common predicted higher tennis enjoyment and commitment. The collective findings—confirmation of the SFQS six-factor structure, relationships between sport friendship quality dimensions and peer acceptance, and relationships of sport friendship quality dimensions with Harter’s (1988) close friendship measure—support the validity of the SFQS.