Describe friendships in adolescence.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. Friendships in adolescence differ from the friendships of childhood. Adolescents are more likely to stress acceptance, intimate self-disclosure, and mutual understanding (Hall, 2011). There are some gender differences. Adolescent girls are more likely to stress the importance of loyalty, intimacy, and companionship, but status-having friends on one's level of social dominance-was more important for males (Hall, 2011). One eighth-grade girl described her best friend this way: "I can tell her things and she helps me talk. And she doesn't laugh at me if I do something weird-she accepts me for who I am" (Berndt & Perry, 1990, p. 269). Adolescents and their friends are similar in many respects. They typically are the same age and race. They almost always are the same gender. Even though romantic attachments increase during the teen years, most adolescents still choose members of their own gender as best friends (Field et al., 2014; Hartl et al., 2015). Friends are often alike in school attitudes, educational aspirations, and grades. Friends also tend to have similar attitudes about drinking, drug use, and sexual activity.Friendship contributes to psychological adjustment. Adolescents who have a close friend have higher self-esteem than adolescents who do not (Brendgen et al., 2010). Intimacy and closeness appear to be more central to the friendships of girls than of boys (Leaper, 2013). Adolescent and adult females also are generally more likely than males to disclose secrets, personal problems, thoughts, and feelings to their friends (Hall, 2011).Friendship networks among girls are smaller and more exclusive than networks among boys (Leaper, 2013). Girls tend to have one or two close friends, whereas boys tend to congregate in larger, less intimate groups. The activities of girls' and boys' friendship networks differ as well. Girls are more likely to engage in unstructured activities such as talking and listening to music. Boys are more likely to engage in organized group activities, games, and sports.