Building on social needs theory (Weiss, 1974), this study introduces the construct of classroom provision richness and examines the association between the exchange of social provisions among children in classrooms and children's feelings of loneliness in school. We examined the receipt of provisions from reciprocally nominated friends versus unilateral (one-sided) and non-friend classmates and examined associations between social provisions and loneliness at the child and classroom levels. Participants were 998 third- through fifth-grade children (468 girls, 530 boys; 88.5% White) in 38 classrooms who indicated which classmates they played with, helped, validated, and provided opportunities for self-disclosure. In addition to the social provisions nomination measure, children responded to (a) a measure of loneliness that avoided content overlapping with social provisions, (b) a rating-scale sociometric measure of peer acceptance, and (c) a measure that asked them to indicate which classmates engaged in prosocial, aggressive, or withdrawn-type behaviors. Multilevel analyses indicated that social provisions received from reciprocal friends and from unilateral–received friends were associated with children's feelings of loneliness in school. Furthermore, a measure of the provision richness of classrooms moderated the association between child-level provisions received and feelings of loneliness, such that children who received fewer provisions were less lonely in classrooms that were more provision-rich. Classroom provision richness was also associated with the general level of prosocial behavior and peer acceptance in the classroom. Together, findings suggest that efforts to foster the exchange of social provisions in classrooms could reduce loneliness and facilitate a more caring classroom environment.

本研究以社会需求理论（Weiss，1974）为基础，引入了课堂供给丰富性的构建，并考察了课堂上儿童之间的社会供给交换与儿童在学校的孤独感之间的关系。我们研究了相互提名的朋友与单方面（片面）和非朋友同学提供的供给的情况，并研究了社会供给与儿童和课堂层面的孤独感之间的关联。参与者是 38 个教室的 998 名三至五年级儿童（468 名女孩，530 名男孩；88.5% 白人），他们指出了与哪些同学一起玩耍、帮助、认可并提供自我表露的机会。除了社会规定提名措施之外，儿童还回答了（a）避免内容与社会规定重叠的孤独感测量，（b）同伴接受度的评级量表社会计量测量，以及（c）要求他们指出哪些同学有亲社会、攻击性或孤僻行为。多层次分析表明，从互惠朋友和单方面接受朋友那里获得的社会供给与儿童在学校的孤独感有关。此外，衡量教室供给丰富程度的指标调节了儿童收到的供给与孤独感之间的关联，因此，获得较少供给的儿童在供给更丰富的教室中不那么孤独。课堂教学的丰富程度也与课堂上亲社会行为和同伴接受度的总体水平有关。总之，研究结果表明，努力促进课堂上社会供给的交流可以减少孤独感并促进更加关爱的课堂环境。