Relations of Gender, Gender-Related Personality Characteristics, and Dating Status to Adolescents’ Cross-Sex Friendship Quality

Abstract

This study examined how gender, instrumentality, expressivity and dating status were associated with adolescents' perceived cross-sex friendship quality. Two hundred sixty-two Hong Kong Chinese heterosexual teenagers (117 males, 145 females) aged 14 to 18 rated the levels of companionship, closeness, help, security and conflict in their best cross-sex friendships. Results showed that girls perceived more help but also more conflicts. Instrumentality and expressivity were consistent correlates of closeness and security, but they predicted other features differently in the two genders. Daters reported higher levels of companionship, closeness and help. Dating girls, in particular, perceived these friendships as involving the highest levels of security. These results provide some support for social role theory and interdependency across adolescents' social relationships.

“A Boy Would Be Friends With Boys … and a Girl … With Girls”: Gender Norms in Early Adolescent Friendships in Egypt and Belgium

“…Respondents who reported having important opposite-sex friendships were most often boys, also supporting prior research [23]. Some research suggests that opposite-sex friendships deteriorate during adolescence as romantic interest and relationships emerge [24,25], whereas other researchers argue that adolescents' romantic relationships may promote opposite-sex friendships [26,27]. More research is needed to understand what impact, if any, opposite-sex friendships have on development of healthy romantic relationships.…”

Changes in best friendship quality between adolescence and emerging adulthood: Considering the role of romantic involvement

“…Moreover, the results observed for emotional support are in line with those found by Rauer et al (2013) showing that, in adolescence, youths in the Frequent group reported the highest level of perceived emotional support in their friendship. However, some studies have shown that best friendship quality differs according to romantic relationship status during adolescence (Cheung & McBride-Chang, 2011), which contradicts our findings. This divergence could be explained by the binary conceptualization of romantic involvement usually used in the literature, which contrasts with our conceptualization based on developmental patterns of involvement.…”

Η Μελέτη Του Φαινομένου Της Βίας Μεταξύ Ερωτικών Συντρόφων Στην Εφηβεία Με Τη Χρήση Της Βιογραφικής Αφηγηματικής Μεθόδου

“…541 Αναφορικά με άλλες έρευνες, οι φιλίες ανάμεσα στα δυο φύλα ευνοούν περισσότερο τα κορίτσια από ότι τα αγόρια. 542 Αναλυτικότερα, οι έφηβες απολαμβάνουν περισσότερα θετικά στοιχεία από τις ετερόφυλες φιλίες, όπως συντροφικότητα, συναισθηματική επαφή, αφοσίωση και υποστήριξη. 543 Σε αυτό το σημείο είναι σημαντικό να αναφερθεί ότι για τον έφηβο ή την έφηβη η προδοσία ενός φίλου ή μιας φίλης μπορεί να είναι μια συγκλονιστική εμπειρία.…”