McGill Friendship Questionnaire

Introduction

Friendship plays a crucial role in shaping our emotional well-being, social support, and overall quality of life. It is built on mutual trust, shared experiences, and a balance of give-and-take, creating a foundation for meaningful connections. Quality friendships offer comfort, encourage personal growth, and provide a source of stability, especially during challenging times. These relationships are essential not only for emotional fulfillment but also for building resilience and coping skills.

People with strong friendships are more satisfied with their lives (Choi et al., 2020) and are more likely to avoid mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression (Perzikianidis et al., 2023). Strong friendships can positively impact mental health, reduce feelings of loneliness, foster a sense of belonging. Tools like the McGill Friendship Questionnaire help individuals and healthcare practitioners assess the dynamics of friendships, enabling insights into the quality and strengths of these relationships. By understanding and nurturing friendships, we can better support personal and collective well-being.

What is the McGill Friendship Questionnaire?

The McGill Friendship Questionnaire (MFQ) is a psychological assessment developed by Morton J. Mendelson and Frances E. Aboud (1999), designed for measuring friendship quality by exploring both emotional and functional aspects of relationships. It was primarily used in researching the effects of friendship or isolation in populations. Used widely, the MFQ has helped individuals and researchers understand how social skills and emotional security contribute to a fulfilling friendship.

This questionnaire comprises two key sections: the Respondent Affection (MFQ-RA) and the Friendship Function (MFQ-FF). The MFQ-RA includes 16 items aimed at gauging positive feelings toward a friend, assessing satisfaction and emotional security by asking respondents about their care and pleasure in the friendship. The MFQ-FF, on the other hand, contains 30 items that examine the roles friends play, such as offering stimulating companionship, resolving conflicts, and being a reliable ally. It assesses how often a friend helps or engages in entertaining things and private discussions that foster a healthy relationship.

However, the questionnaire can also be used among individual or group clients. By asking participants, especially young adults, to consider aspects of their friendships with closest friends, the McGill Friendship Questionnaire provides insights into essential qualities, like feeling calmer and having good ideas. The MFQ is also useful for spotting possible wrong answers that don’t align with a best-friend connection, reinforcing its accuracy.

How to use the McGill Friendship Questionnaire?

The McGill Friendship Questionnaire is an invaluable tool for medical professionals assessing friendship quality and emotional support in clients’ lives. Using Carepatron’s McGill Friendship Questionnaire template, mental health professionals and relationship counselors can guide clients through evaluating their social connections, offering insights to improve their emotional well-being.

Step 1: Access the questionnaire

Carepatron provides an easy-to-use McGill Friendship Questionnaire template, available directly within this guide. Simply click "Use template" to open it. You can customize it before printing it and using it in sessions, helping facilitate a structured and supportive assessment process of the client’s friendship experiences.

the client

Introduce the McGill Friendship Questionnaire to the client, explaining its purpose of assessing the quality of their friendships. Clarify that the questionnaire is designed to capture positive aspects and areas needing support, helping the client feel at ease with the assessment.

Step 3: Assess the client with the questionnaire

Guide the client through the questionnaire, encouraging honest responses. Each item will gauge various friendship qualities, from emotional security to companionship. Support them as they respond; help them feel calmer by providing a comfortable environment that promotes open, thoughtful answers. You may administer it as an interview or ask them to fill it out themselves.

Step 4: Gather and interpret data

Collect the client’s responses, and analyze them based on the questionnaire's scoring structure. The McGill Friendship Questionnaire provides a comprehensive view of friendship quality, highlighting strengths and areas for potential improvement in social interactions.

Step 5: Discuss findings with client

Share the results with the client, discussing insights regarding their friendship dynamics. This conversation helps clients recognize the role friendships play in their emotional health, addressing positive findings and any areas that may benefit from additional focus.

Step 6: Provide client education and next steps

Offer guidance on how clients can cultivate stronger friendships, whether through conflict resolution, seeking companionship, or enhancing reliability within relationships. Outline actionable steps they can take and suggest follow-up sessions to track progress in developing healthier, supportive friendships.

Scoring and interpretation

The McGill Friendship Questionnaire (MFQ) is scored using two distinct components: the Respondent Affection (MFQ-RA) and the Friendship Function (MFQ-FF). Each component employs a different scoring system based on a nine-point Likert scale, which allows respondents to indicate their feelings or perceptions regarding their friendships.

In the MFQ-RA, which consists of 16 items, respondents evaluate their emotional connection and satisfaction with a friend. Each statement, such as "I care about [friend]," is rated from -4 (very much disagree) to +4 (very much agree). The total score is calculated by averaging the responses, resulting in a mean score that reflects the overall affection and satisfaction in the friendship. A higher total score indicates stronger feelings of affection and satisfaction, while a lower score suggests dissatisfaction or emotional distance. It also includes subscales for satisfaction and positive feelings.

The MFQ-FF, on the other hand, includes 30 items that assess how frequently a friend fulfills specific friendship functions. Statements like "[Friend] helps me when I need it" are rated on a scale from 0 (never) to 8 (always). Similar to the MFQ-RA, it is also possible to derive an individual score for six subscales: stimulating companionship, reliable help, intimacy, reliable alliance, self-validation, and emotional security. To get a mean score for each respondent, all scores are averaged. This score reflects the perceived functionality of the friendship across six dimensions, represented by the six subscales. Higher mean scores indicate that the friend effectively meets these functional needs.

The interpretation of scores from both components provides insights into the quality of friendships. High scores in both MFQ-RA and MFQ-FF suggest strong emotional bonds and effective support systems within friendships, while lower scores may highlight areas needing improvement or indicate potential issues in the relationship.

Benefits of using the questionnaire

Apart from being used as a tool in researching the effects of friendship (or lack thereof) in a population, the McGill Friendship Questionnaire offers several advantages for understanding and enhancing the quality of individual friendships. This tool can help you gain insights into the emotional and functional aspects of your clients' relationships, helping to foster healthier connections.

Provides a comprehensive friendship assessment

The McGill Friendship Questionnaire taps respondents' assessments of various friendship aspects, helping to evaluate qualities like emotional security, trust, and shared experiences. This in-depth approach enables clients to feel comfortable discussing sensitive or private things, often uncovering areas they may overlook in daily interactions with friends.

Encourages self-reflection and emotional awareness

Using the questionnaire allows clients to engage in meaningful self-reflection, often revealing qualities they seek in a good friend or how they prefer to be supported. The process can help clients be more self-aware.

Supports healthier relationship-building practices

Survey results from the McGill Friendship Questionnaire help practitioners guide clients in building healthier relationships, particularly if they struggle with criticism or connecting with a new friend. Most people benefit from insights on effective social skills, and the questionnaire can provide actionable ways to help clients cultivate relationships where they feel comfortable and valued, boosting overall life satisfaction.

References

Choi, K. W., Stein, M. B., Nishimi, K. M., Ge, T., Coleman, J. R. I., Chen, C.-Y., Ratanatharathorn, A., Zheutlin, A. B., Dunn, E. C., Breen, G., Koenen, K. C., & Smoller, J. W. (2020). An exposure-wide and Mendelian randomization approach to identifying modifiable factors for the prevention of depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 177(10), 944–954. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.19111158

Mendelson, M. J., & Aboud, F. E. (1999). Measuring friendship quality in late adolescents and young adults: McGill Friendship Questionnaires. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 31(2), 130–132. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0087080

Pezirkianidis, C., Galanaki, E., Raftopoulou, G., Moraitou, D., & Stalikas, A. (2023). Adult friendship and wellbeing: A systematic review with practical implications. Frontiers in Psychology, 14(14). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1059057