Deas proposed by interdependence theory (Hatfield et al., 1993), we hypothesized that adolescents who reported higher levels of empathy would demonstrate higher intimacy competence, which would cause their friends’ perceptions of closer friendships (Hypothesis 2a). Similarly, we hypothesized that adolescents who reported much more empathy would demonstrate greater conflict management competence, which would result in their friends’ perceptions of less friendship conflict (Hypothesis 2b). The investigation of dyadic friendships is vital for two RA190 site motives. First, the examination of each actor and companion effects can help demonstrate that there are mutual influences of dyadic friends’ private qualities. Outcomes from the existing study would show whether friendship top quality is solely dependent on adolescents’ personal empathy and interpersonal competence or also their friends’ characteristics. Second, companion effects would advance prior analysis by ruling out “potential shared-method variance” that’s characteristic of person point of view information. In summary, the current study aimed to extend preceding study on friendship high-quality by examining the associations between empathy and friendship high quality at the actor and partner levels, and how these associations are mediated by interpersonal competence.watermark-text watermark-text watermark-textMeasuresMethodProcedures and Participants The information used in this study came from a larger longitudinal study of adolescents followed from grade 6 by way of 12. Recruitment letters with return-mail postcards have been sent to roughly 1,300 families with sixth-graders in ten public schools inside the suburb of Richardson, Texas. Families who agreed to participate had been visited in their properties by trained assistants for each wave of assessment. Target adolescents also asked a same-sex pal to participate, who was present through the dwelling visits. Data have been gathered from target adolescents and their mothers, fathers, and same-sex most effective mates. Following getting informed consent, participants have been separated into private areas of your dwelling to make sure confidentiality. Following finishing questionnaire packets, participants sealed their responses in envelopes to guarantee that other participants could not see their responses. All participants received payment for taking part inside the study. Initially, 115 boys and 108 girls participated in the 6th grade. At the subsequent assessments, information were obtainable for 185 adolescents (95 boys) in 8th grade, 153 (79 boys) in 10th grade, and 110 (57 boys) in 12th grade. At the first wave with the study, the majority of participating adolescents have been Caucasian (88.9 ; 3.9 African-American, 2.six Hispanic, and 4.six other), lived with both organic parents (81 ; 6.6 single parent, and 11 natural and step parent), and have been from middle- and upper middle-class households (88.3 ). For the current study, only information from 10th grade were employed due to the fact empathy was assessed in the course of this wave. Out of 153 households in 10th grade, 146 adolescents (72 boys; Mage = 15.9 years) had data from a same-sex best buddy and had been incorporated in the existing study.Empathy–Participants’ empathy was assessed by the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) questionnaire (Davis, 1983). Fourteen products in the original empathic concern andJ Adolesc. Author manuscript; accessible PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21185336 in PMC 2014 February 01.Chow et al.Pageperspective-taking subscales had been adopted for the existing study. Two instance things are “I at times try to understand.