The distinction between friendship adjustment and acceptance by the peer group was examined. Third- through 5th-grade children (N = 881) completed sociometric measures of acceptance and friendship, a measure of loneliness, a questionnaire on the features of their very best friendships, and a measure of their friendship satisfaction. Results indicated that many low-accepted children had best friends and were satisfied with these friendships. However, these children's friendships were lower than those of other children on most dimensions of quality. Having a friend, friendship quality, and group acceptance made separate contributions to the prediction of loneliness. Results indicate the utility of the new friendship quality measure and the value of distinguishing children's friendship adjustment from their general peer acceptance.

Researchers have made considerable progress in understanding the emergence, maintenance, and consequences of acceptance versus rejection by the peer group (see Asher & Coie, 1990, for reviews). Although group acceptance is an important facet of children's successful adaptation to peers, greater attention is needed to children's ability to form and maintain satisfying and supportive specific dyadic friendships as distinct from their ability to gain acceptance in the classroom more generally. Indeed, several authors (e.g., Blyth, 1983; Bukowski & Hoza, 1989; Furman & Robbins, 1985) argued that problems in group acceptance do not necessarily preclude satisfactory friendship adjustment, and they pointed out that concerns about the emotional well-being of low-accepted children might be attenuated if it could be established that low-accepted children have satisfying one-to-one friendships. To date, however, children's friendship adjustment has been studied far less frequently and less systematically than children's group acceptance, and the links between these two forms of peer adjustment are poorly understood.

Although little consensus exists as yet regarding the most appropriate means of assessing friendship success or adjustment, several reviews (e.g., Berndt, 1984; Bukowski & Hoza, 1989) suggested that two different elements...