Interpersonal connection is a fundamental human motivation, and the extent to which it is fulfilled is a strong predictor of symptoms of internalizing disorders such as social anxiety and depression, perhaps especially during the “social reorienting” period of adolescence. However, little is known about the contribution to this effect of the individual’s social motivations, which are intensified during adolescence. Furthermore, social goal orientation – an individual’s priorities and intentions in social interactions – is an important predictor of vulnerability to internalizing symptoms. Adolescents spend most of their waking lives in classrooms, bounded social networks with a limited pool of candidates for befriending. This study investigated whether friendships within one’s class protects against internalizing symptoms in part by reducing the desire for more classmate friendships, which may tend to promote maladaptive social goals. Participants were 423 young adolescents (M age = 13.2, sd = 0.52 years; 49.4% girls). As predicted, adolescents’ number of reciprocated classroom friendships had a protective effect on internalizing symptoms which was serially mediated by desire for more such friendships, and social goal orientation. However, only demonstration-avoidance goals significantly predicted internalizing symptoms. Unreciprocated friendship nominations were unexpectedly associated with stronger desire and more social anxiety symptoms. The results suggest that the effect of number of friends is mediated by the individual’s thoughts and feelings about their number of friendships, such that a strong desire for more friendships promotes maladaptive goals, oriented toward social status and consequently less oriented toward the cultivation of interpersonal intimacy with the friends they already have.

人际联系是人类的基本动机，其实现程度是社交焦虑和抑郁等内化障碍症状的有力预测因素，尤其是在青春期的“社会重新定位”时期。然而，人们对个人的社会动机对这种效应的贡献知之甚少，这种动机在青春期会增强。此外，社会目标导向——个人在社交互动中的优先事项和意图——是内化症状脆弱性的重要预测指标。青少年醒着的大部分时间都在教室里度过，社交网络有限，可供交友的人选有限。这项研究调查了班级内的友谊是否可以部分通过减少对更多同学友谊的渴望来防止内化症状，这可能会促进适应不良的社会目标。参与者为 423 名青少年（M年龄 = 13.2，sd  = 0.52 岁；49.4% 为女孩）。正如预测的那样，青少年的课堂友谊数量对内化症状具有保护作用，而内化症状是由对更多此类友谊的渴望和社会目标取向依次介导的。然而，只有避免示范的目标才能显着预测内化症状。未得到回应的友谊提名出人意料地与更强烈的欲望和更多的社交焦虑症状相关。结果表明，朋友数量的影响是由个人对其友谊数量的想法和感受调节的，因此对更多友谊的强烈渴望会促进适应不良的目标，这些目标以社会地位为导向，从而不太注重培养人际亲密关系和他们已有的朋友。