Factors contributing to the process of making and maintaining of Friendships – A Qualitative Analysis

Abstract: Background: Past research (Oswald and Clark, 2003, Lapid, 2011, Roberts-Griffin, 2011) suggests that factors such as proximity, trust and common interests play a part in making and maintaining friendships. Aim: The aim of the study is to assess whether these factors are important in the formation and maintenance of friendships. Method: I was supplied with the interview transcripts of two participants and interviewed a third myself. Results: The results from the data collected show that the above mentions factors are important amongst all three participants Conclusion: friendships require many factors for development and maintenance, future research should look into possible researcher biases.

It is suggested that friendships are a crucial component to a person’s happiness and welfare. Individuals who develop friendships will usually have higher levels of self-worth and will perceive others in a more positive light, compared to individuals who struggle to develop friendships (Hartup & Stevens, 1999). An individual can develop several types of friendships at university, ranging from acquaintances to best-friends. Factors such as mutual attraction and shared interests play a part in this friendship intensity (Selfhout, Denissen, Branje & Meeus, 2009).

When an individual makes the transition from home-life to University-life, the prospect of leaving their existing social circles can be daunting and extremely stressful (Buote et al., 2007). Research carried out by Paul and Brier (2001) found that this transition can lead to feelings of isolation, depression and psychological disturbances, resulting in drop-out rates of 20%-25% after the first year. These difficulties can be reduced, if not eliminated, by the development of various types of friendships, especially that of a best-friend (Tokuno., 1986, cited in Buote et al., 2007). Oswald and Clark, (2003) found that similarity between individuals within a new friendship is improved by shared interests, mutual friendship circles and recurrent interaction. Individuals will adopt numerous approaches in order to successfully maintain both old and new friendships, these can be in the form of social-media, face-to-face meetings and future planning.

Social media has been referred to as a “social-psychological proximity” in the maintenance of friendships (Oswald & Clark, 2003). Modern technology allows individuals to communicate in various ways on a daily basis whether it be with someone on the other side of the world or in the next street. This notion was investigated by Madge, Meek, Wellens & Hooley, (2009) who established that social media has been found to be useful in the transition to University, individuals report it being like a ‘social-glue’ in aiding communication between students. Furthermore, Lapid (2011) found that the overall quality of friendships (both long and short distance) was stronger when participants reported the use of social media, this was because individuals found social media easier to use for ‘instant interaction’ via the use of chat, as opposed to using e-mail.

Different types of friends have been found to hold various qualities, for instance, best-friends are expected to be trustworthy, reliable and understanding whilst non best-friends are not likely to hold all of these qualities. The desirable qualities that individuals look for in a friendship was investigated by Roberts-Griffin (2011), he discovered that ‘trust’ was the most desired quality in 15-45 year olds, whilst honesty was more important to participants aged 45+. Furthermore, participants also reported that having similar interests was important in the maintenance of close friendships.

Proximity proves an important factor in both making and maintaining friendships. Nahemow and Lawton (1975) investigated this notion and found that individuals will form ‘convenient’ friendships with those nearby, however they are much more likely to travel further afield in order to form friendships with those they perceive as being similar to themselves. Roberts and Dunbar (2015) investigated the effect of proximity on maintaining friendships and found that changes in location resulted in a decline in closeness.

The aim of this study is to investigate the various ways in which University students not only form friendships but also looking how old and new friendships are maintained. Taking into account the findings of past literature, I would expect factors such as proximity, trust and common interests to be important in both making and maintaining friendships, additionally, it is likely that the level of friendship, such as best-friends and close-friends, will influence these factors.

Method

Design

The design use was correlational, gaining insight using a standardized, open-ended interview. The interview was arranged in a formal setting with the use of a dictaphone to record the interview and some pre-decided questions to allow for conversation within the interview. All questions were open-ended and few probing questions were added for more intricate detail of the interviewee’s friendships.

Participants

Within this study I was supplied with the interview transcript of a female participant (Shazia) and was then asked to choose a further interview transcript from a choice of four others, I went on to choose one by a male participant (Alexander) as I wanted to see whether there was any difference in the data due to gender. I was then required to interview one participant myself, I chose to interview a mature student (Jemma (name changed to maintain anonymity)) as I wanted to investigate whether age had any influence on the answers given. The only conditions of the participant selection was that they must either currently or previously have been a student at University.

Materials

Shazia and Alexander Transcripts – These transcripts were obtained from the HEA website, once codes and categories were created, they were used alongside the third interview in the analysing of the findings.

Dictaphone – The interview was recorded using a Sony ICDBX140 Dictaphone.

 Procedure

Once participant selection was carried out, the interview was conducted in a neutral environment. The participant was given an information sheet and instructed to read thoroughly and carefully. If the participant was happy with the instructions, they were asked to sign a consent form (Appendix  2), along with the researcher. Once the participant had been fully informed of what was required of them, the interview process began which lasted approximately one hour. After completion of the interview, the participant was given a debriefing sheet.

Ethics

Participants were made aware that any information they supplied would be anonymous, whilst also being confidential. Informed consent was required from all participants, this was acquired by the signing and dating of a consent form. Due to the possible sensitive nature of some of the questions, participants were informed that they did not have to answer any questions which made them feel uncomfortable. The participant were also made aware of the relevant counselling services available, in case the questions within the interview brought back bad or upsetting memories about friendships, leading to possible distress. All procedures were adhered to by British Psychological Society (BPS).

Analytical Process

The process of Grounded Theory was employed, this involved a system of inductive methods which provides a comprehensive focused analyses. Once participant selection had taken place, the initial stage of the process was to come up with a list of possible open-ended questions for the interview, these were required as a basis, as probing questions were expected to be used throughout the interview. After the interview had taken place it was transcribed onto a word document complete with line numbers. Thorough reading of all three transcripts then took place in order to fully understand the answers provided by participants. The next stage was to analyse the transcripts and start the coding process, open-coding came first which involved the finding of similarities between the interviews, these similarities were then categorised and put into axial codes (i.e.: trust, common interests). Once these axial codes were established, constant comparisons took place using memos and quotations. Finally, theories were derived from the memos and axial codes, allowing them to be categorised into super ordinates for analysis support (please refer to table in Appendix 1). 

Reflection & Quality

On reflection, when starting this research, I found the grounded theory process quite daunting. The volume of work involved in the coding process was overwhelming, however, once I started the process of coding I became to notice themes emerging and the whole process began to make a lot more sense to me. The analysing of the transcripts taught me to ‘read between the lines’ when people are describing their feelings and experiences. I enjoyed carrying out the interview with Jemma and tried to remain friendly in order to allow the participant to answer the questions thoroughly. I do however believe that researcher biases could have been a problem, the way in which the questions were asked could have been interpreted differently. The fact that I knew the participant on a personal level could have led her to be misleading in the answers given due to being embarrassed. Finally, possible unintentional facial expression made by myself could have had an effect on the answers given. Overall, I believe these factors could have possibly had an impact on the outcome of the interview.

Analysis

The analysis of three interviews produced a total of five super ordinates, three of these being recognised most important ‘making’, ‘maintaining’ and ‘friendship types’. ‘Obstacles’ were found to be related to both the making and maintaining of friendships, whilst ‘qualities’ were found to differ

in all three areas of making friends, maintaining friendships and friendship types.   (please refer to  model).

The first super ordinate established was ‘making’, this category was created using various axial codes including socialising, proximity and common interests. All three of these were found to be important to Shazia in order to make new friends, she tells of how she “made quite a few quite fast” when she started University. Shazia explains that she formed new friendships and they “all became quite close in that week” as they “found out we had a lot more in common”. This led to Shazia becoming really close with some of her newly found friends.

“two girls that I met on my course and they were practically the same as me just, a lot  crazier [laughs] and we, the three of us just spent the whole last year just going mental  [laughs] and like, cause we’d go out pretty much every day” (lines 262-266) 

In terms of proximity, Shazia describes how she also found it easier to make new friends when she started University as she was living in the same halls of residence as a lot of other students.

“everyone  on  our  floor,  we all   end up   like   for   the  first   two weeks  we all  went  out  together to all of the Fresher’s things, every, the whole floor, like twelve of us, we all just  went out together, so we all became quite close in that week, the first two weeks, and  then, and then after that it all started, like all the girls we all stayed close” (lines 249-254) 

A similar pattern of ‘common interest’s and ‘proximity’ was found in the interview of Jemma, she explains how she finds it “easier to make friends” as she is “outgoing around new people”. She then went onto explain how a new friendship was formed when she was 14 years old.

“I started attending a local youth club, after going there for a few weeks I ended up  having a new friend” (lines 79-81) 

Socialising appears to be important to Jemma, she explains that she will “talk to pretty much anyone” and that being “shy” and “withdrawn” is pointless if you want to form new friendships. When Jemma started University, she felt a bit “lonely” so she made a point of making new friends.

“I was tired of being on my own so I just started chatting to different students and I got  talking to 2 other ‘mature’ students and asked them if they would like to go to the local  pub for dinner” (lines 209-213) 

Jemma also mentions how proximity plays an important part in making friendships. She explains that her first ever “closest friend” only “lived 5 minutes down the road” from her. Not only did they live in the same area, Jemma tells how they were within the same vicinity a lot of the time.

“she was my closest friend for years, ever since I was about 4 years old in nursery school. We went to the same primary and secondary schools” (lines 7-9) 

This statement describes how being within a close proximity to others, whether it be a school or social setting, makes becoming friends a lot easier. Again, similarities were found within the interview of Alexander, he talked about how starting University was quite overwhelming for him, he gives reference to how he was feeling on his first day “I was like ‘Crap’, big, new place, new people”, he then overcame this overwhelming feeling and began to make friends (like Shazia) by socialising.

“went down to ((Local Pub)) and sort of welded together through booze, always works  fantastically, I think the first time we all went there it’s like fifteen of us and just having a  few drinks getting to know each other”(lines 339-342) 

Alexander talks about his “best-friend” and how they met, he explains that he “met him in our history class” and “we were in the same form as well”. When it comes to making friends, he explains how he and his new friend both enjoyed “hanging around” and “meeting up with girls an stuff”, likewise, sharing an interest in hobbies and activities if effective in friendship formation.

“well I suppose we just sat about sometimes, we also sort of played footie as you do”  (lines 40-41) 

The next super ordinate to be discussed is that of ‘maintaining’ friendships, this category was created using various axial codes including proximity, social media and future planning. Whilst maintaining friends was possible in many different ways, obstacles did appear in many instances such as proximity, different lives and trust issues.

Shazia talks in depth about her relationship with her best-friend and how she felt when it was time for her to go off to University, and explains how she “was really worried that we were gonna grow apart”, however, once she had made the move, she realised that her friendship still remained “strong” and she didn’t “feel any different”. They have both talked about their future plans in order to maintain their friendship.

“we’ve already made plans that we’re gonna go up and down all the time” ,“be able to  go there and spend some time with her” (lines 181-182) 

However, problems do tend to occur as time goes on. Due to family commitments, Shazia does not always have the time to meet her friend when she goes home.

 “when I go home I don’t have time to meet her cause like say if I need to go home for a  family gathering or something” (lines 225-227) 

I feel a bit guilty, but also cause I  like catching up with her and I really want to, but  some- when you can’t, you can’t” (lines 233-234) 

Shazia also talks about how social media has helped to maintain contact with her school friends, however, proximity amongst other variables do not further these friendships any further than social media.

“and the fact that we’re friends on Facebook and not even meeting up and stuff when  they live like round the corner from me, it’s, I don’t think, I’ll be seeing them any time soon” (lines 553-556) 

A similar theme was found within the interview with Jemma, she expresses that “I love my friends dearly” and talks about how she strives to maintain her friendships in various ways such as social media and making plans.

“We do make plans to have nights out and stuff and we do talk mainly on the phone or I  will chat with them on Facebook now an again” (lines 269-271) 

Due to Jemma being a mature student with numerous commitments, obstacles such as family commitments and University work do often get in the way, she tells of how she “would like to see more of my friends but it’s a matter of having to prioritise”.

“I have to prioritise, if I have commitments to my children/family, like afterschool clubs  or   swimming   lessons,   then  obviously   they’re  gonna come first.   Likewise,   if   I  have  a  deadline approaching on a piece of coursework, then I have to put that first” (lines 277-281) 

Alexander talks about how proximity could have become an issue when he had pretty close friendships with his cousins, they moved away and all made plans to visit eachother. He explains how making the effort is crucial on both parts and that just because you don’t live in the same City/Country as someone, does not mean that you cannot remain friends. He describes how the world is a small place and that is visiting someone is not possible then there is always social media and telephones.

“they moved away sort of a car distance each travel so we didn’t see each other as often,  but we could have done and when I moved away what they said was we could have seen  each other so often, but we didn’t and now that I’m living so far away they want to see me, so the distance doesn’t really matter, it’s just the effort that you put into it I reckon”  (lines 180-186) 

The last super ordinate to be discussed is ‘friendship types’, this category was created using various axial codes such as ‘close friends’, ‘best-friends’ and ‘acquaintances’, ‘qualities’ appeared to have a large impact on friendship types as it became evident that different types of friends possess different qualities. Best friends would hold qualities such as ‘trust’ and ‘comfort’ whilst close friends would hold qualities such as ‘understanding’. Obstacles also appeared to play a part in determining friendship types as ‘trust issues’ and difficulties with friends’ could affect the closeness of people.

Shazia describes her friendship with her best-friend and explains how there has “always been that level of comfort” which is not apparent in all friendships.

“I wish that it could be like that with all friendships but I know that it’s not going to be,  cause you, you don’t always, you’re not always best friends with every single person that  you that you’re friends with” (lines 161-163) 

Trust appears to be one of the most important qualities in a friendship to Shazia, however she talks about how trust develops between friends and becomes stronger over time, however once the trust is broken, it is difficult to rebuild and cannot be forced.

“You can tell what they’re gonna be thinking and how much you can trust them and  stuff, but then once it does happen then once it’s kind of proved itself then I think it’s  stronger” (lines 715-718)

“if it’s got to a point where you can’t trust them at all then trying to rebuild it then and  like forcing it, that won’t help anything cause you’re just gonna constantly doubt and  constantly just go crazy” (lines 1143-1146) 

Likewise, Jenna appears to have a similar outlook on friendship types. She explains how her friendship with her first best-friend became ‘weaker’ after the trust was broken

“Yeah cos that’s when I realised that I couldn’t actually trust her so I never ever confided  in her after that. I think the friendship slowly started to become weaker after that which  is why I maybe ended up becoming best friends with Jean a few years later” (lines 378-382) 

She then went onto form a new friendship with a girl she described as being her new best-friend and someone she could “always rely on and be comfortable with”.

“she became like a sister and I knew I could trust her with anything I told her. I went  through a few bad patches when I was a teenager and she was always there for me no  matter what” (lines 138-141) 

Alexander defines friendship as a whole by saying “I think the main aspect is trust”, this expresses how important trust is to him. He goes on to talk about how people need to ‘gain his trust’, it doesn’t happen automatically. Additionally, Alexander talks about his relationship with his best-friend and the time they spent together.

“I went travelling with him as well during my gap year so we spent what three months at  least twenty-four seven with him so, normally you can’t do that with people, I can’t, but  he’s my best mate” (lines 68-71) 

To Alexander, this length of time spent together signifies the strength of the friendship as spending this much time with someone is not easy unless you have a special kind of relationship and closeness.

Model of Superordinate codes

Discussion

The present study set out to investigate the different ways in which University students make and maintain friendships. I suggested that factors such as proximity, trust and common interests to be important in both making and maintaining friendships whilst also being affected by friendship types. It became apparent throughout the interviews that individuals adopt various methods in forming new friendships and maintaining both old and new friendships, the above mentioned factors did appear to contribute to friendships.

Participants described how ‘common interests’ was important in forming friendships. Shazia described how she made friendships quite fast when she started University, due to sharing the same interests of others, similarly, Jemma explained how she formed friendships with other ‘mature’

Mak

ing

& M

aint

aini

ng F

riend

ship

s Making

Maintaining

Friendship Types

Social Media Groups, Respect, Cultural Understanding, Common Interests, Socialising, necessity for friends, Meeting people, Proximity

Qualities

ObstaclesBetrayal, Bullying, Time constraints, Difficulties with friends, Proximity, Transition , Trust Issues, Family Commitments, Different lives, Pressure

Common Interests, Trust, Consistency, Comfort, Reliability, Non-Judgemental, Understanding, Security

Socialising, Future planning, Mutual Understanding, Social Media, Common Interests, Telephone, Proximity, Text Messaging

Home friends, Best-Friends, Acquaintances, University friends, Large Groups, Close Friends

students as being surrounded by ‘general’ students made her feel quite singled out, this commonality of age was significant in Jemma’s case. Furthermore, Alexander talks of his new friendship and explains that they both enjoy playing football and hanging about together, this shared interest appeared important in strengthening this friendship. These findings are consistent with that of Oswald and Clark, (2003), within their study of 137 University participants, they established that the possibility of forming new friendships is improved when both parties share an interest.

In the area of maintaining friendships, social-media appeared to be a major factor in the maintenance of friendships, however these virtual relationships do not always lead to maintaining real life friendships. Shazia talks about how she uses Facebook to chat with various friends from high school and how it is a crucial component in maintaining these friendships, however, these friendships are nothing more than virtual as Shazia explains how they live within close proximity of her yet she has no intentions of meeting up with them. Social-media appears to be more important in the maintenance of actual friendships in Jemma’s case, due do her being a mature student she does not always get the time to go out and socialise with her friends and therefore relies on social-media amongst other things to keep her friendships secure. This importance of social-media is consistent with the theories of Madge, Meek, Wellens and Hooley, (2009), they found that when individuals make the transition from home-life to university-life, they begin to feel anxious, lonely and daunted, amongst other things. They explain that the use of social-media acts as a ‘social-glue’ in forming and maintaining friendships due to the notion that students will create facebook groups, add friends who are on their course and find out about local events via social-media, resulting in new and possibly lasting friendships. There findings were further backed up by Lapid (2011)

Lastly, looking at friendship qualities, trust appeared to be extremely significant throughout all three interviews. The word ‘trust’ appeared 46 times throughout all three interviews, suggesting that this is a quality which is essential in order for friendships to happen/last. Shazia describes the importance of trust to her and goes onto talk about how trust can only develop and strengthen over time, yet once trust is broken, it cannot be fixed, nor can it be forced as this will result in constant doubts. Consistent with this, Jemma talks about the relationship she had with her best-friend and how it started to decline once the trust was broken. Jemma felt that she was unable to confide in her friend after the trust had gone and eventually went onto form a new friendship with a girl she describes as being like a sister, stating that she could trust her with anything. In line with these findings, Alexander also mentioned the importance of trust to him, when describing what he feels is important in a friendship, the first thing he mentions is that he believes trust to be the main aspect, expanding on this, he went on to explain how he believes that trust needs to be earned, it’s not automatic. This importance of trust in consistent with the findings of Roberts-Griffin (2011), within his research on 491 participants, he found that participants between the ages of 15-45 reported ‘trust’ as being the most central quality needed in all types of friendships.

On reflection, it is apparent that this study does hold its limitations. Firstly, the fact that the researcher knew the participant on a personal level, researcher-bias could have played a part in the outcome of the questions. Future research should look to make sure that there is no connections at all between researcher and participant. Secondly, sample size of three was extremely small in this study, the results from this research could not possibly be generalised to the wider population. Future research should look to expanding the participant size whilst also looking at other population areas other than just University students.

Word count: Quotes: 895, Table: 82

References

Buote, V., Pancer, S., Pratt, M., Adams, G., Birnie-Lefcovitch, S., Polivy, J., & Wintre, M. (2007). The Importance of Friends: Friendship and Adjustment Among 1st-Year University Students. Journal Of Adolescent Research, 22(6), 665-689. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0743558407306344

Hartup, W., & Stevens, N. (1999). Friendships and Adaptation Across the Life Span. Current Directions In Psychological Science, 8(3), 76-79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00018

Madge, C., Meek, J., Wellens, J., & Hooley, T. (2009). Facebook , social integration and informal learning at university: ‘It is more for socialising and talking to friends about work than for actually doing work’. Learning, Media And Technology, 34(2), 141-155. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439880902923606

Nahemow, L., & Lawton, M. P. (1975). Similarity and propinquity in friendship formation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32(2), 205-213. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.32.2.205

Oswald, D., & Clark, E. (2003). Best friends forever?: High school best friendships and the transition to college. Personal Relationships, 10(2), 187-196. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1475-6811.00045

Paul, E., & Brier, S. (2001). Friendsickness in the Transition to College: Precollege Predictors and College Adjustment Correlates. Journal Of Counseling & Development, 79(1), 77-89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2001.tb01946.x

Roberts, S., & Dunbar, R. (2015). Managing Relationship Decay. Hum Nat, 26(4), 426-450. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12110-015-9242-7

Roberts-Griffin, Christopher P. (2011) "What Is a Good Friend: A Qualitative Analysis of Desired Friendship Qualities," Penn McNair Research Journal: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 5.

Selfhout, M., Denissen, J., Branje, S., & Meeus, W. (2009). In the eye of the beholder: Perceived, actual, and peer-rated similarity in personality, communication, and friendship intensity during the acquaintanceship process. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 96(6), 1152-1165. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0014468

www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/subjects/psychology/TQRMUL_Dataset_Teaching_Resources

Name of Superordinate

category

Axial codes which make this category

Open codes which make this category

Commentary on superordinate category

Evidence provided from quotes (cut and paste the quotes / include or refer to line numbers)

Making Social Media Groups, Respect, Cultural Understanding, Common Interests, Socialising, necessity for friends, Meeting people, Proximity

Facebook, Same halls, Same Course/school/area, Ethnicity, Time together, Sleepovers, Going the pub, Comfort, Care, Shared Interests,

Participants describe the various ways in which they formed their various friendships, the main factor in contributing to these formations appeared to be common interests and proximity

Shazia - “two girls that I met on my course and they were practically the same as me just, a lot crazier” (lines 262-263)Alexander - went down to ((Local Pub)) and sort of welded together through booze (line 339)Jemma - if they would like to go to the local pub for dinner (line 213)

Maintaining Socialising, Future planning, Mutual Understanding, Social Media, Common Interests, Telephone, Proximity, Text Messaging

Shared Interests, First experiences, Going Out, Planning holiday, best-man, Facebook, Sports, Understanding eachother

Participants described way they maintained their friendships. spending time together and shared interests seemed important in this category.

Shazia – “we’ve already made plans that we’re gonna go up and down all the time” ,“be able to go there and spend some time with her (lines 181-182)Alexander – “so the distance doesn’t really matter, it’s just the effort that you put into it I reckon2 (lines 186-187)Jemma – “We do make plans to have nights out and stuff and we do talk mainly on the phone or I will chat with them on Facebook now an again” (lines 269-271)

Friendship Types

Home friends, Best-Friends, Acquaintances, University friends, Large Groups, Close Friends

Group of us, bestest friend, missing them, not bothered about them, like a sister/brother, only see in Uni, putting in effort,

This category talks about friendships types and how participants categorise their friends

Shazia – “you’re not always best friends with every single person that you that you’re friends with” (lines 161-163)Jemma - “she became like a sister and I knew I could trust her with anything I told her” (line 138-139)Alexander – “normally you can’t do that with people, I can’t, but he’s my best mate” (lines 70-71)

Obstacles Betrayal, Bullying, Time constraints, Difficulties with friends, Proximity, Transition , Trust Issues, Family Commitments, Different lives

Married, grew apart, Prioritise, Distance, Time, bullied, talk behind back, forced trust, new friends, personalities, jobs, children

This category describes how things such as everyday life and changes in circumstances can contribute to the break down of friendships

Jemma - “Yeah cos that’s when I realised that I couldn’t actually trust her so I never ever confided in her after that” (lines 379-379)Shazia - “if it’s got to a point where you can’t trust them at all then trying to rebuild it then and like forcing it, that won’t help anything” (lines 1143-

1145)Alexander – “when I moved away what they said was we could have seen each other so often, but we didn’t” (lines 181-182)

Qualities Common Interests, Trust, Consistency, Comfort, Reliability, Non-Judgemental, Understanding, Security

Complete trust, feeling comfortable, not being judged, stability, not awkward, always there, count on them

This category describes the various qualities participants expect from their friends, Trust appeared significantly more important than others.

Shazia – “You can tell what they’re gonna be thinking and how much you can trust them and stuff,” (lines 715-716)Jemma – “she became like a sister and I knew I could trust her with anything”Alexander - “I think the main aspect is trust”

Participant Information sheet

Title of Project: Investigating the formation and maintenance of friendships at university

Name of Researcher and School/Faculty Rachel HaganLiverpool John Moores

Uniersity

You are being invited to take part in a research study. Before you decide it is important that you understand why the research is being done and what it involves. Please take time to read the following information. Ask us if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information. Take time to decide if you want to take part or not.

1. What is the purpose of the study?

The aim of this study is to examine how friendships are formed at university, this research is being conducted by level 5 (2nd year) students as part of their undergraduate programme.

2. Do I have to take part?

Participation in this study is entirely voluntary; you have the right to withdraw from the study at any time and for any reason.

3. What will happen to me if I take part?The study will consist of an interview lasting for approximately one hour. The research will consist of an interview that will be recorded and then transcribed.

4. Are there any risks / benefits involved?There are no foreseeable risks associated with this study, however if any issues do arise the contact email address for the university counselling service is included:counselling@ljmu.ac.uk

5. Will my taking part in the study be kept confidential?The details of your participation will remain confidential, all recordings and transcripts will be held on a data stick separately any other documents held on the researchers computer. Only the initials of the participant will be used on the transcript. Copies of the interview and transcript will be made available on request.

Appendix 2

Contact Details of Researcher

If you need to contact the researcher after the interview has taken place you may contact them at: r.hagan@2014.ljmu.ac.uk

CONSENT FORM

Title of Project: Investigating the formation and maintenance of friendships at

Name of Researcher and School/Faculty Rachel HaganLiverpool John Moores

University

I confirm that I have read and understand the information provided for the above study. I have had the opportunity to consider the information, ask questions and have had these answered satisfactorily

1. I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time, without giving a reason and that this will not affect my legal rights.

2. I understand that any personal information collected during the study will

3. be anonymised and remain confidential

4. I agree to take part in the above study (if appropriate please specify the type of study or particular intervention you are seeking consent for – eg focus group, interview, training programme)

For studies involving the use of audio / video recording of interviews, focus groups etc or where there is a possibility that verbatim quotes from participants may be used in future publications or presentations please include the following:

5. I understand that the interview/focus group will be audio / video recorded and I am happy to proceed

6. I understand that parts of our conversation may be used verbatim in future publications or presentations but that such quotes will be anonymised.

Name of Participant Date Signature

Natalie O’Neill 29/12/2015 N O’Neill

Name of Researcher Date Signature

Rachel Hagan 29/12/2015 R Hagan

DEBRIEF

Title of Project: Investigating the formation and maintenance of friendships at

Name of Researcher and School/Faculty Rachel HaganLiverpool John Moores

University

The purpose of this study is to investigate the formation and maintenance of friendships amongst undergraduate students studying at LJMU. The interviews will be transcribed and analysed using grounded theory to develop a theory . Thank you for your time in participating in the study.

Who to contact with enquires about this study?

Rachel Hagan – r.hagan@2014.ljmu.ac.uk

LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORES UNIVERSITY