College students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds often report worse well-being compared to their more privileged peers. This study investigates whether disparities in well-being are associated with relational experiences, with a focus on friendship dynamics. Using a year-long multiwave survey, we investigate key features of friend networks that are linked to well-being among first-generation, low-income (FLI) students and their continuing-generation, higher-income (CHI) peers. We find that, for FLI students, better well-being is uniquely and consistently linked to similarity and academic support in their friend networks. Furthermore, disparities in well-being between FLI and CHI students are largest when FLI students' friend networks are more socioeconomically diverse and completely mitigated when they are less diverse. These findings underscore that in socioeconomically diverse college environments, friendships are not one-size-fits-all in their ability to meet the needs of individuals.
Melian et al. (2026) studied this question.