Adolescents' disclosure to best and good friends: The effects of gender and topic intimacy

Abstract

The disclosure of 227 7th‐ through 12th‐grade adolescents to four other persons – their closest same‐ and cross‐sex best friends, and lesser‐but‐good same‐ and cross‐sex friends – about 40 topics varying widely in intimacy was examined; in addition, each subject rated every topic's intimacy. A (2) gender × (2) friend's gender × (2) closeness × (3) age × (3) intimacy level ANOVA yielded two large main effects (partial ω2 > .15), closeness and topic intimacy. Three large interaction effects – gender by friend's gender, friend's gender by intimacy, and gender by closeness by intimacy – were also found, as was a moderate‐sized closeness by gender by friend's gender interaction (partial co2= .08). A number of other effects were statistically significant but of only small magnitude. The perceived intimacy of 6 of the studied topics varied across age groups, and one topic, “your weight” was rated differently by males and females. The data are discussed in relation to previous research on adolescent gender differences in friendship and disclosure.

How Girls and Boys Expect Disclosure About Problems Will Make Them Feel: Implications for Friendships

“…This would lead to smaller sex differences in outcome expectations for disclosure in cross-sex than same-sex friendships. Such findings would fit with results indicating sex differences in disclosure are stronger in same-sex friendships than in cross-sex relationships (Dolgin & Kim, 1994). …”

Girls’ and boys’ problem talk: Implications for emotional closeness in friendships.

“…Given these developmental changes, middle adolescents were expected to participate in problem talk with friends more than early adolescents. This fits with past work indicating that self-disclosure to friends increases with age (e.g., Doglin & Kim, 1994; McNelles & Connolly, 1999). Due to their more advanved social perspective taking skills, middle adolescents also were expected to respond more sensitively to friends’ problem statements (i.e., with more positive engaged and fewer negative responses) than early adolescents.…”

Peer Estimates of School‐Aged Boys' and Girls'Aggression to Same‐ and Cross‐Sex Targets

“…Although same-sex groups are clearly a strong feature of early and middle childhood, children at the same time also participate in cross-sex interactions and relationships (Archer, 1992). There is evidence that cross-sex encounters and relationships in themselves can be viewed as a separate social world (Benenson, Del Bianco, Philippoussis, & Apostoleris, 1997;Bukowski, 1990;Bukowski, Gauze, Hoza, & Newcomb, 1993;Dolgin & Kim, 1994;Hops et al, 1997;Leaper, 1991). Accordingly, it is possible to conceive children's cross-sex relationships as occurring in parallel with same-sex relationships, with children to some degree learning separate patterns of interaction in same-sex and cross-sex relationships, rather than learning strategies from same-sex relationships that are transferred to cross-sex relationships.…”