Defining Friendship
In all cultures, friendships are important relationships throughout the life span. What exactly is friendship? Although there are multiple types of friends, including neighborhood friends, same-sex friends, other-sex friends, and best friends, friendship is generally characterized by five defining features. First, friendship is a dyadic relationship, meaning that it involves a series of interactions between two individuals known to each other. Second, most experts contend that friendship involves a reciprocated, affective, or emotional bond. In other words, friendships are recognized by both members of the relationship and are characterized by a bond or tie of reciprocated affection. Third, these relationships are voluntary. Friendship is not obligatory; two individuals choose to form a friendship with each other. In Western societies, friendships are one of the least prescribed close relationships, with no formal duties or legal obligations to one another. Fourth, friendships are typically egalitarian in nature. Unlike parent-child relationships, for instance, each individual in a friendship has about the same amount of power or authority in the relationship. Fifth, almost all friendships are characterized by companionship and entail engaging together in shared activities. In fact, one of the primary goals and motivations of friendship is companionship. In addition, adolescent and adult friendships often meet other socio-emotional functions, such as serving as sources of support and providing opportunities for self-disclosure and intimacy.
These features differentiate friendship from several related phenomena. The fact that friendships are dyadic relationships distinguishes them from cliques or groups of peers. Of course, many members of cliques are also friends with other members. However, a friendship between two people is not the same as a group of peers. Similarly, having friendships is different from being popular or having a high social status. Individuals who are not popular certainly may have close friendships. Less commonly, a popular person may not have a real friendship. The affective bond that is a component of friendship distinguishes friendship from acquaintanceship. Friends provide individuals with more opportunities for self-disclosure and emotional support than acquaintances. The reciprocal nature of friendship also differentiates actual friendships from relationships in which one person thinks or wishes it were a friendship.
Friendship In Different Phases Of The Life Span
Friendships play an important role in healthy human development and adjustment across the life span. Friendships exist in practically every stage of development, although the form they take varies considerably with age.
Early Childhood
Although there is no clear consensus regarding at what age children first begin to form friendships, the foundations of such friendships begin to emerge quite early. Toddlers behave in regular, predictable manners in their interactions with well-acquainted peers earlier than they do with unacquainted peers. Within the first 2 years of life, children show stable preferences for certain peers over others; further, they follow different interaction patterns with these preferred playmates than with other familiar peers. By the time children reach preschool age, the existence of true friendships is even more evident.
Children themselves tend to first define friendships in terms of interactions, such as “we play together.” Companionship is generally viewed as the primary function of friendship among toddlers and preschoolers. Preschool friends have more social contact with each other, talk more, and demonstrate more equality and less dominance in their interactions than they do in their interactions with nonfriends. Differences between friends and nonfriends are particularly evident in social pretend play. By preschool, children also begin to incorporate more emotional and affective functions into their friendships. Preschool friends express more positive affect toward each other and score higher on measures of mutual liking, closeness, and loyalty than nonfriends do. Additionally, even young children frequently become sad or lonely when a friend moves away.
Friendships are not always harmonious, however, and young children may engage in conflict with their friends. In fact, early childhood friend dyads tend to engage in more conflict than nonfriend dyads. Yet, friend dyads also extend more efforts to resolve conflict and are more successful at such resolution than are nonfriend dyads. Conflict resolution is frequently seen as one of the important social skills that young children develop within their earliest friendships.
Additionally, friendships are not always mutual among young children. Although the definition of friendship typically requires reciprocity, unilateral friendships in which only one child of a pair nominates the other as a friend are quite common in early childhood. In fact, about 50% of nominated preschool friendships are unilateral.
Middle Childhood
Friendships make up an important aspect of development in middle childhood, when much time is devoted to social play and social interaction skills are becoming increasingly important. School-age children spend a great deal of time interacting with peers and thus are presented with many opportunities for extending the friendship skills they acquired in early childhood. Children tend to form friendships with individuals who are similar to themselves on a variety of dimensions. Some research suggests that there is greater similarity between friends on characteristics that are high in reputational salience. For example, school-age boys tend to be especially similar to their friends on aggressiveness. Children at this age are developing increasing independence from their parents, and their relationships with friends may be somewhat less dependent on parental involvement than was the case in preschool. Children may have more time with their friends outside the direct supervision of an adult. Coupled with the sociocognitive advances of middle childhood, spending time together with a friend may promote the development of shared intimacy, which frequently takes the form of shared secrets, and becomes a defining feature of friendship for children at this age.
School-age friendships are differentiated from early childhood friendships in a number of additional ways. Friendships in middle childhood are more stable over time than friendships in early childhood, yet still typically less so than adolescent or adult friendships. In addition, a much higher proportion of friendship nominations is reciprocated in middle childhood than in early childhood. Although same-sex (versus other-sex) friendships compose the significant majority of friendships in early and middle childhood, there is a sharp decline in the proportion of other-sex friendships in middle childhood. A high proportion of same sex friendships remains until adolescence.
As in early childhood, school-age friendships are characterized by social contact, talking, equality, positive affect, mutual liking, closeness, and loyalty. In addition, emotion is expressed more readily with friends than with nonfriends by this age; affective reciprocity, emotional intensity, and demonstrations of emotional understanding are all more common. As in preschool, friendships in middle childhood are defined in large part by shared activities, yet in middle childhood, the concept of a friendship as transcending shared activities and having continuity over time emerges more fully. By middle childhood, friendships are frequently more complex and more similar to adult friendships than are children’s earliest friendships. Loyalty, shared values, and shared rules become important during the school years, and shared interests, empathy, common understanding, and self-disclosure gain increasing importance by preadolescence. Friends also communicate differently than nonfriends. Conflict remains more common among friends than among nonfriends, as does its resolution.
Friendships still tend to be relatively immature in comparison to adolescent and adult friendships, however. Children at this age are better able to take the perspective of another person, but they are still primarily focused on what they need or want out of the relationship, rather than what their friend may need or want.
Adolescence
Adolescence marks a critical period in the development of friendships. A variety of factors, such as growth in cognitive capabilities and strivings for increased autonomy from parents, contribute to the formation of close friendships in adolescence. Close friendships involve more affection and intimacy than friendships before adolescence. Although relationships to parents remain important sources of support, adolescents begin to seek more support and advice from friends than in early or middle childhood. Adolescents also spend more time with friends than in earlier ages.
Although adolescents may have some close friends whom they spend a lot of time with and do many different things with, they also begin to develop many friendships that are more specialized in nature. That is, they may have a friend whom they engage in particular sports with, and another friend who is involved in the same school club or activity they are involved in. Neighborhood and school friends can also be relatively distinct groups of peers.
Adolescent friendship is also distinguished from friendships in childhood by the establishment of friendships with other-sex peers. In early and middle childhood, the vast majority of friendships are formed between same-sex peers, and many children do not have any other-sex friends. In adolescence, most friendships are still with same-sex peers, but most adolescents have one or more other-sex friendships as well. Such friendships serve many of the same functions as same-sex friendships, but they also may be differentiated from same-sex friendships on some dimensions. For instance, opposite-sex friendships provide opportunities for learning about the other sex and obtaining the perspective of the other sex. These friendships may also contain some element of sexual tension. Other-sex friends also tend to have less in common with each other, engage in less self-disclosure, and are less stable than same-sex friendships.
Some individuals form friendships with other-sex individuals whom they were initially attracted to, but eventually decided to be “just friends.” At the same time, some other-sex friendships evolve into romantic relationships. Even more commonly, these friendships can provide opportunities for heterosexual youth to find romantic partners because an other-sex friend may introduce them to someone who becomes a boyfriend or girlfriend. Although we know far less about the links between friendship and the development of romantic relationships for homosexual adolescents, some research suggests that for both homosexual and heterosexual youths, other-sex and same-sex friendships may serve as a learning ground for developing the intimacy and connectedness that are part of most adult romantic relationships.
“Friends-with-benefits” is another type of adolescent friendship that seems to be relatively new and relatively specific to Western industrialized cultures. Friends-with-benefits are friendships that involve some degree of physical or sexual intimacy, but are not considered to be a romantic relationship by both parties. Although research is underway on this topic, we currently have very limited knowledge about this specific type of friendship. One possibility is that friends-with-benefits function to meet the physical and sexual desires that develop with puberty and may operate as a basis for some teenagers to learn about sexual experiences.
Adolescence is also marked by the emergence of romantic relationships. In many respects, these relationships can be considered a particular form of friendship. In fact, adolescents and adults often perceive their romantic partner to be their best friend. Just like other types of friendships, romantic relationships are characterized by affiliation and companionship. In late adolescence or adulthood, these relationships may become more distinct from friendships, but even then, companionship and affiliation remain important elements of these relationships.
Adulthood
Because adulthood encompasses a wide range of ages and life stages, the individual’s stage in the life course is an important factor in considering adult friendships. Life course changes such as the transition to marriage, the transition to parenthood, and the process of retirement affect friendship patterns.
Research on friendship in young adulthood has mostly focused on college students. We actually know little about the friendships of individuals who marry or join the workforce directly after high school. Because of the nature of their environment, college students are likely to have a greater number of friendships than individuals who are not students. College students are surrounded by peers, and at least traditional full-time students have the time and opportunity to develop close friendships. Regardless of whether they are in school or the workplace, young adults who are more involved in a romantic relationship have fewer friends than individuals who are single.
This trend continues into middle adulthood. In particular, when individuals enter into marriage, both men and women seem to withdraw from friendships. Middle adults generally have fewer friends than college students. In comparison to friendships of younger adults, friendships in middle adulthood also tend to be more homogenous in terms of factors such as age, race, and social status. Adults also tend to have mostly same-sex friendships and thus have fewer other-sex friends than do adolescents. This trend may in part occur because social norms portray other-sex relationships as a threat to marital relationships. The decrease in frequency of friendships and the increase in homogeneity of friends during this period may also reflect the environments of most adults in middle adulthood, with fewer numbers of peers and potential friends. In addition, adults’ lives are typically more multifaceted and more complex, often occupied by family, parenting, and careers.
Friendships among older adults take place in different contexts than friendships in middle and young adulthood. This age and life stage is often characterized by events such as retirement, relocation, widowhood, and deteriorating health. These transitions produce some increases and some decreases in older adults’ ease and ability of forming and maintaining friendships. For example, retirement eliminates work as a source of interacting with possible friends. Widowhood, on the other hand, may encourage individuals to look to friends more often for sources of support and companionship.
Phases Of Friendship: Formation, Maintenance, And Dissolution
Across individuals of all ages, friendships form, evolve, and sometimes dissolve over time. The length and duration of the various phases of a friendship vary across individuals and across different circumstances.
The formation phase of a friendship is the transition from strangers to acquaintances to friends. During this phase, individuals engage in interactions to get to know each other and to forge the affective bond that characterizes a friendship. Both youth and adults have a tendency to form friendships with others who are similar to them. Even young children are attracted to peers of the same age and sex. Similarity in terms of behavioral characteristics and activity preferences become increasingly important by middle childhood. As people enter adolescence and adulthood, similarity in terms of attitudes, values, and beliefs, as well as shared interests and activities, may be bases for forming friendships. Adults are even more likely than youths to form friendships with individuals who are similar to themselves in terms of variables such as gender, age, race, and social status.
Why does similarity play a role in the formation of friendships? Environmental variables are one explanation for why individuals tend to form friendships with people who are similar to them. Children and adults frequently spend time with others who are similar to them, and thus have more opportunities to form friendships with similar people. For instance, among children and adults, those who reside in the same neighborhoods are typically similar in terms of socioeconomic status or ethnicity. Peers that children meet at school are likely to have a similar educational status, achievement level, and educational goals, especially as they grow older and are assigned or select classes on the basis of their academic success. Similarly, adults frequently meet and form friendships with colleagues at work who are likely to have similar educational attainment and socioeconomic status. Friends that develop among both children and adults through social clubs or groups commonly share at least one activity or value in common, such as an interest in a particular activity or a political view. Individual characteristics also play a role in explaining why people frequently choose to form and maintain friendships with people who are similar to them. Individuals may find interactions easier with others who are similar in personality, behaviors, values, and attitudes, thus facilitating further interactions and the subsequent development and maintenance of a friendship. Thus, there is strong evidence for the adage that birds of a feather flock together, and little evidence that opposites attract.
The maintenance phase of friendship involves engaging in interactions that serve to sustain the relationship. Friends engage in a variety of behaviors to maintain their relationship, such as sharing interests, doing recreational or leisure activities together, and exchanging support and advice. Friends typically have conversations about topics such as family issues, dealing with other interpersonal relationships, and daily activities. The frequency of interactions between friends is one central determinant of the success of maintaining a friendship. In other words, friendships are not stationary; interactions are required to maintain a friendship.
Convenience is perhaps the most important determinant of the frequency of interactions between friends. Thus, it is easier to maintain friendships with individuals in close proximity (e.g., neighbors) than with those far away (e.g., long-distance friends).
One of the most notable distinctions between a developing friendship and a close friendship is the mutual affective bond. As individuals transition into becoming closer friends, what started out as a mutual liking of each other typically evolves into a stronger emphasis on reciprocal self-disclosure, intimacy, and emotional support. How satisfied a person is with the support and companionship they derive from a friend is an important factor in determining an individual’s investment and the amount of effort they put into maintaining a friendship. Interestingly, once a certain degree of an emotional bond has been established, it is more the quality than the quantity of interactions that determine the successful or unsuccessful maintenance of a friendship. In other words, friends who have a long-standing history and who have established a strong affective connection may not need to interact very frequently to maintain their friendship.
Whereas joint satisfaction in the relationship is a part of maintaining friendship, another important component of friendship is managing and resolving conflict. Although the amount and intensity of conflict varies across individual friendships, conflicts do arise in most friendships. In general, conflict is infrequent in the early stages of forming a friendship, but actually tends to increase as individuals become closer friends over time. Some evidence suggests that conflict can potentially serve to strengthen the emotional tie between friends. Because conflict involves self-disclosure and exposing one’s own vulnerabilities, successful negotiation of disagreements that arise between friends can actually foster increased trust between friends.
Whereas some friendships will be maintained indefinitely or forever, other friendships will dissolve or break up. Friendships dissolve for multiple reasons and under multiple circumstances. Sometimes the reason can be attributed to circumstances; a friend may move away, and contact becomes harder to maintain. Sometimes friendships may end abruptly. For instance, friends may have a major disagreement that is not resolved. Friendships may also end gradually. In some circumstances, friends share less in common over time or feel less supported by each other.
Friendship And Socioemotional Adjustment
Empirical research has repeatedly found links between friendships and healthy adjustment. It is true both that friendships promote adjustment and that well-adjusted individuals are more likely to develop friendships. First, friendships have an important effect on individuals’ socioemotional adjustment throughout the life span. Perhaps foremost, friends serve as a critical source of social support. In childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, social support from friends has significant, positive effects on well-being, such as increasing one’s life satisfaction and happiness, augmenting a person’s ability to successfully cope with life stress, and even decreasing an individual’s vulnerability to illness. Well-being is enhanced by both having friendships and being accepted (vs. rejected) by one’s peers. Regardless of social status (i.e., being popular or unpopular), it seems particularly important for healthy adjustment that a person has at least one friendship. Individuals without any friends, particularly individuals who are rejected or bullied by their peers, are at significant risk for a variety of socioemotional difficulties, such as loneliness, depression, and anxiety. Friends can protect each other and provide support for each other against victimization from other peers.
Along these lines, friendship in childhood and adolescence plays a central role in developing an individual’s sense of self-worth. Because friends disclose and share personal thoughts and feelings with each other, friendships are an opportunity to receive and provide validation of one’s self-worth. Children and teenagers who have friendships have better self-worth or self-esteem than youths who do not have friendships.
Friendship also plays a pivotal role in the socialization of children and teenagers. Although parents clearly are important figures in socialization as well, children and adolescents learn important and valuable information about appropriate behaviors and social norms from peers. Children, and particularly adolescents, have their own cultural norms, most notably with regard to fashion and entertainment. Children and adolescents observe the dress and behaviors of their friends and either strive to be similar or are pressured to conform. In addition to such lifestyle choices, children and adolescents’ opinions and attitudes are frequently shaped by those held by their friends. Friendships offer an outlet for discussion and observation of beliefs and attitudes about such topics as the importance of school, plans for the future, values, activity preferences, and risk-taking behavior. Children can thus learn from their friends what types of beliefs and behaviors are acceptable within a given social context.
Similarly, friendships are children’s first experience of egalitarian relationships. In family relationships, parents ultimately have more authority. With friends, however, decision making and power are expected to be more evenly distributed. In effect, these egalitarian relationships provide the necessary opportunities for learning the give-and-take required for effective social interactions. Such experiences teach children how to have mutually rewarding experiences, how to share, and how to resolve conflicts. As emotional intimacy and self-disclosure between friends become more important in adolescence, youth learn about obtaining support from friends, and they also learn how to provide comfort and serve as a source of support for friends.
Although friendships are typically thought to have a positive influence on socioemotional adjustment, it is not just having or not having friends that plays a part in individuals’ well-being. The specific effects of friendship on adjustment vary as a function of who the friend is. Thus, having a friend who is deviant or antisocial is likely to foster deviant or antisocial behavior. For example, one important determinant of an adolescent’s use of alcohol and drugs is his or her close friends’ substance use. Adolescents who have close friends who use alcohol or drugs are more likely to use such substances themselves. In part, this occurs because friendships involve mutual socialization, meaning that friends become more similar to one another over time, perhaps by actively seeking to emulate qualities in their friends, or by trying to strengthen the friendship by emphasizing similarities. Additionally, it is equally true that individuals select friends who are similar to them. In other words, individuals who use drugs are likely to seek out other peers who use drugs.
It is important to point out that just as friendships appear to promote better adjustment, it is also true that well-adjusted individuals are more likely to develop friendships. For instance, children and adolescents who have a secure attachment to their parents are more likely to form friendships and to have more supportive friendships. Similarly, those who are accepted by their peers are more likely to develop friendships.
Gender Differences In Friendship
Research suggests that there are gender differences in the nature of friendships. Males and females generally stress different factors as being important in friendship. Males often emphasize the importance of doing things together, such as joint activities and shared interests. Women often emphasize the importance of shared intimacy and emotional connectedness in friendships. Such differences begin to appear in children’s friendships and may be greater as they grow older.
Why are there differences between the characteristics of males and females? One explanation is that social norms define different expectations for friendships according to gender. Females may be socialized to share feelings and be more emotionally intimate in friendships; thus, they may value and establish these characteristics in friendships. Males may be socialized to be less emotionally expressive; thus, they may value the companionship of friendships more than the intimacy of friendships. Alternatively, other perspectives on gender and friendship contend that gender differences in friendship characteristics are overstated. For example, it has been suggested that males may develop intimacy and connectedness through alternative means, such as activities or shared experiences. From this perspective, gender differences may really be less meaningful than individual differences in factors such as emotional expressiveness and communication skills.
Conclusion
Friendships can be defined in terms of five defining features of friendship—their dyadic nature, an emotional bond, voluntary status, egalitarian structure, and provision of companionship. These features are common across ages and gender, although the form that friendship takes changes considerably over the course of the life span. Regardless of the stage of the life span, friendships play an important role in many aspects of our lives.
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