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The purpose of this paper is to investigate university students’ WeChat usage during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in relation to the mediating role of online self-disclosure on their quality of friendship and well-being. A model is proposed to explain how students’ interactions occur during the lockdown and the mediatory role which self-disclosure plays in influencing their socio-psychological markup.

The research model was tested empirically through a survey conducted online with 600 research participants, comprising of university students in China.

Results in structural equation modeling show that WeChat interaction significantly correlates with the quality of friendship, online self-disclosure but not significantly correlates with well-being, but an indirect relationship was found out in the mediation analysis. There is also a significant relationship between online self-disclosure, quality of friendship and well-being. Mediation analysis shows that online self-disclosure mediates the relationship between interactions on WeChat and quality of friendship; it also mediates the relationship between WeChat interaction and well-being. In all, the results achieved in this study will significantly help provide more insights in comprehending the nuances attached to some socio-psychological aspects of WeChat and how its usage affects people during the period of crisis.

Theoretically based investigation of WeChat usage among university students and its relationship with online self-disclosure, quality of friendship and well-being is still quite scarce, thereby underscoring the needs and significance of a theoretically based study in this regard. This study tested the credibility and validity of the proposed model in the context of the recent COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in China, which is one of the first in recent times.

Through the lens of the Social Exchange Theory, this study investigates the role of emotional and psychological well-being in explaining the relationship between academic stress and friendship quality.

Using a cross-sectional quantitative research design, the study gathered data from 298 tertiary students. Statistical analysis was conducted using Hayes Process Macro in SPSS.

Results from the study challenge conventional assumptions, indicating a positive and significant relationship between academic stress and friendship quality. In addition, the study revealed that psychological well-being partially mediates the relationship between academic stress and friendship quality, while emotional well-being fully mediates the relationship between academic stress and friendship quality.

This study is limited to the tertiary institutions in Ghana. Future studies may consider expanding the scope to other levels of education to gain a more comprehensive perspective of the variables of the study.

This study presents a novel approach by examining the proposed model within the Ghanaian setting. It offers valuable perspectives on the interplay between academic stress, well-being, and friendship quality.

Interpersonal networks and quality of women and men’s close work friendships in three work settings were investigated to assess potential impact of gender socialization and organizational structure factors on patterns of interaction within same‐sex and opposite‐sex work friendships, and to examine whether friendship quality would predict salary and job satisfaction and if this would differ as a function of the sex of the employee or the friend. Findings indicate that homophilous ties are stronger than opposite sex ties, which support previous research on relationships in the work environment. Work context influenced the nature of relationships among women and men. In contrast to research on friendships outside the workplace, work friendships involving women were not consistently rated as more satisfying and ratings varied across work settings. Quality of close male friendships was more associated with career success and job satisfaction than quality of close female friendships.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and internalizing problems among the youth. Moderator effects of a friendship quality were also investigated to examine if higher friendship quality moderated the negative effects of cyberbullying on psychological states of students.

A total of 463 middle and high school students in Texas participated in an online survey. The frequency of cyberbullying victimization, the level of self‐esteem, depression, anxiety, stress, and the friendship quality were measured.

There was a statistically significant association between cyberbullying victimization and internalizing problems. This study supported the results of past studies by demonstrating the aversive nature of cyberbullying. However, a quality of friendship quality did not seem to moderate negative psychological effects of cyberbullying. The results indicate the complexity and difficulty of intervening with cyberbullying.

No causality inferences can be made in a cross‐sectional study. Thus, future research should examine the duration of internalizing problems. It would also be helpful to include other moderators.

Although good peer relationships work as a buffer for traditional bullying, the association is not same for cyberbullying. Thus, an existing anti‐bullying program which includes a peer support system may not work for cyberbullying intervention.

Researchers identified the relationship between cyebrbullying victimization and psychological difficulties; however, not all victims suffer from psychological distress; thus, it is necessary to identify what moderates negative effects of cyberbullying. Although moderator effect between cyberbullying and internalizing problems has not been well researched yet, the findings may provide important information to enable the development of effective prevention/interventions.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of multidimensional friendship networks on economic outcomes in the domain of online people-to-people (P2P) lending markets.

The empirical analysis is based on the data set of transactions and friendship networks from PPDai.com market, the most prominent P2P lending market in China. A friendship hierarchy is proposed in this paper to conceptualize friendship network types. Furthermore, methodologies of t-test, logistic regression and ordinary least squares regression are implemented to measure the impact of multidimensional friendship network variables on the probability of successful funding, as well as the interest rates on funded loans.

The study demonstrates significant effects of structural, relational and cognitive friendship networks using PPDai.com data. The results indicate that structural friendship network measured in terms of the number of friendship ties is a significant factor of funding performance. Additionally, borrowers, who are involved in higher-quality friendship networks, are more likely to be funded and pay lower interest rates on funded loans. Also, the deeper the level of the relationship is in the friendship hierarchy, the more significant will be the effect of friendship on the final economic results. Furthermore, quality is more important than quantity in determining funding performance.

This paper is the first to study the effects of multidimensional friendship networks on economic outcome variables in the domain of online P2P lending, thus broadening the theory of multidimensional social capital, which can deepen our understanding about how social networks work and have significant implications practically and theoretically.

This paper looks at the quality and value of leisure and friendships that people with learning disabilities experience in the community. It provides an overview of the problems in developing friendships for people with moderate, severe and profound learning disabilities transferred from hospital to community care and identifies recommendations for commissioners, providers, staff and carers for the development of friendships through leisure in the community.

Friendships, an important form of people’s everyday relationships with others, have been studied by many scholars from different disciplines. However, there is limited research on friendship in the context of childhood, particularly that of Chinese rural children. This chapter presents findings from an in-depth study on Chinese children’s understandings and experiences of friendships with peers in the context of a rural primary boarding school. Data for this research were collected through an intensive five-month study, using an ethnographic approach, in a rural primary boarding school (given the pseudonym ‘Central Primary School’) in the western area of China in 2016. This chapter discusses parents’ influences on children’s selection of friends, particularly their ‘good’ friends, and their understandings of the functions of making friends in the context of rural China. It unpacks parents’ interventions on children’s friendships by discussing the moralised hierarchical relationship between children and their parents – children are expected to show obedience to parents. Then, it argues that the Confucian-collectivist values construct a relationship between a child’s individual achievement and their family’s collective good, which makes friendship not only an individual issue but also a collective one too.

The purpose is to examine the cross-level relationship between workplace fun and informal learning with workplace friendship as a mediator and team climate as a moderator.

Adopting a two-wave survey procedure, data were collected from 251 employees working across 45 teams of a leading heat transfer manufacturer in Asia. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to test our hypothesized cross-level moderated mediation model.

Out of the three forms of workplace fun, only two – manager support for fun and coworker socializing – supported our hypotheses. Therefore, not all types of workplace fun are equal and one of the key factors through which fun influences informal learning is by maintaining harmonious interpersonal interactions and high relationship quality in teams.

Based on social interdependence theory, this study uncovers the cross-level mechanism of how workplace fun affects informal learning. The findings extend existing research on workplace fun by focusing on not only individual factors but also interpersonal and contextual elements. The findings also provide practical implications for managers to understand the possible impact of workplace fun on employees' informal learning.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the individual music research projects the authors were working on in Borroloola, Northern Territory of Australia, and the ways in which the lived and inter‐subjective concepts of sisterhood and friendship strengthened the authors’ shared experiences in the field and became the foundations of their method.

Through an auto‐ethnographic and inter‐subjective narrative approach, the authors consider how the intertwined notions of relationship as research and “friendship as method”, underpinned what was being researched, how the research was enacted, and finally how the authors came to further appreciate and understand the role that music‐making plays in facilitating this process.

The authors’ independent and shared experiences during this research were stark reminders that it is indeed the quality of field relationships and friendships, rather than clever theoretical ideas or fancy methodological frameworks, which ultimately determine the quality and depth of their musicological and ethnographic research.

This paper presents original, feminist‐based research which places concepts of sisterhood, friendship and relationships at the centre of music research practice in Australia. More specifically, this research highlights the complexities of such research practice across the boundaries of race, with and in collaboration with, Indigenous Australian women.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential influence of friendship on entrepreneurial teams (ETs) and on venture formation and development. The theoretical framework is built on the literature around friendship ties, the interaction of friendship ties and professional ties, and ETs.

Taking an interpretative methodological approach, the authors carried out qualitative interviews with ten business founders in Paris, France.

The authors identified different four profiles or types of ETs according to how friendship ties interact with professional ties among team members, which the authors designate as “fusion” and “separation”, and describe the orientation of this interaction, which the authors label as “affective” or “strategic”. These profiles affect the emergence of the idea and the choice of members in the formation of teams. They also shape the functioning of teams in terms of decision-making processes, recruitment and investment.

The findings underline the difficulties of studying friendship in ETs empirically and recommend longitudinal approaches for further research.

Findings offer insights in to why and how ETs based on friendship ties approach the pre-launch, launch and development phases of businesses as well as in to the interactions between professional and friendship ties, which is helpful to both practitioners and academics. The authors also discuss the consequences and implications of the different team types in terms of their risks and strategies for mitigating these risks.

This is one of the first empirical studies to examine how friendship and professional ties may combine and evolve in ETs, and their influence on the entrepreneurial process as it relates to venture formation and development.