Social relationship provisions and loneliness in school: Child- and classroom-level effects

Abstract

Building on social needs theory (Weiss, 1974), this study introduces the construct of classroom provision richness and examines the association between the exchange of social provisions among children in classrooms and children's feelings of loneliness in school. We examined the receipt of provisions from reciprocally nominated friends versus unilateral (one-sided) and non-friend classmates and examined associations between social provisions and loneliness at the child and classroom levels. Participants were 998 third- through fifth-grade children (468 girls, 530 boys; 88.5% White) in 38 classrooms who indicated which classmates they played with, helped, validated, and provided opportunities for self-disclosure. In addition to the social provisions nomination measure, children responded to (a) a measure of loneliness that avoided content overlapping with social provisions, (b) a rating-scale sociometric measure of peer acceptance, and (c) a measure that asked them to indicate which classmates engaged in prosocial, aggressive, or withdrawn-type behaviors. Multilevel analyses indicated that social provisions received from reciprocal friends and from unilateral-received friends were associated with children's feelings of loneliness in school. Furthermore, a measure of the provision richness of classrooms moderated the association between child-level provisions received and feelings of loneliness, such that children who received fewer provisions were less lonely in classrooms that were more provision-rich. Classroom provision richness was also associated with the general level of prosocial behavior and peer acceptance in the classroom. Together, findings suggest that efforts to foster the exchange of social provisions in classrooms could reduce loneliness and facilitate a more caring classroom environment.

Keywords: Classroom-level effects; Friendship; Loneliness; Peer relations; Social needs theory; Social relationship provisions.

Figure 1. Graphical Representation of the Interaction Between Child- and Classroom-Level Provisions Received from Same-Gender Classmates

Note. In (a), effects of provisions received from same-gender (SG) classmates are plotted for classrooms that are low, average, and high in provisions received from same-gender classmates. For low-provisions classrooms, simple intercept = 20.39 (se = 0.63), p < .001, simple slope = −16.16 (se = 2.89), p < .001; for average-provisions classrooms, simple intercept = 19.81 (se = 0.57), p < .001, simple slope = −12.86 (se = 2.05), p < .001; for high-provisions classrooms, simple intercept = 19.11 (se = 0.68), p < .001, simple slope = −8.83 (se = 2.50), p < .001. In (b), effects of classroom-level provisions received from same-gender classmates are plotted for children who are low, average, and high in provisions received from same-gender classmates. For low-provisions children, simple intercept = 21.19 (se = 0.64), p < .001, simple slope = −20.53 (se = 7.18), p = .004; for average-provisions children, simple intercept = 19.82 (se = 0.57), p < .001, simple slope = −12.71 (se = 6.02), p = .03; for high-provisions children, simple intercept = 18.37 (se = 0.59), p < .001, simple slope = −4.46 (se = 7.23), p = .537.