Specifying and Assessing a Multidimensional Friendship Quality Construct

This study aims to specify and assess friendship quality as a third-order formative construct and provide empirical support for its measurement model. This study employed a quantitative research approach using a survey questionnaire to collect data from 415 Malaysian secondary school students. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach using WarpPLS 5.0 software was utilised to analyse the data. The findings confirmed the convergent and discriminant validity of eight reflective first-order constructs establishing validity and reliability of five formative second-order constructs. The analysis of third-order formative friendship quality construct revealed that Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) was found lower than five and the outer weights were significant at the level of .05. This study extends the knowledge in friendship quality literature by proposing a third-order formative friendship quality construct including four formative second-order constructs. Moreover, applying new algorithms of PLS-SEM for assessing and establishing measurement model of the third-order friendship quality construct offers methodological contribution of the study.