Academic performance and depression in Chinese children: Same‐domain and cross‐domain effects in friendships

Abstract This 1‐year longitudinal study examined the effects of academic performance and depression in friendships among elementary school children in China. Participants included 1122 children (44% boys) within 561 stable friendship dyads initially in fourth and fifth grades (initial M age = 11 years). Data on academic performance, depression, and friendship were collected from multiple sources in the period of 2012 to 2014. Dyadic analysis using the actor‐partner interdependence model showed that friends' academic performance significantly and positively predicted children's later academic performance, indicating same‐domain effects, and significantly and negatively predicted children's later depression, indicating cross‐domain effects, with a medium effect size ( ε 3 = .70) for the effects of academic performance. The results help understand the role of friendship in children's development in the Chinese context.