This study tests the hypothesis that adolescents with romantic partners are less similar to their friends on rates of alcohol abuse than adolescents without romantic partners. Participants (662 girls, 574 boys) ranging in age from 12 to 19 years nominated friends and romantic partners, and completed a measure of alcohol abuse. In hierarchical…

This study focuses on companionship, intimacy, and support of reciprocated friendships of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), students with motor and/or sensory disabilities, and typically developing students with their classmates at the start of mainstream secondary school. The study included 1379 typically developing students, 65…

Residential college environments provide young people with distinctive relationship opportunities and challenges. A major purpose of the present study was to learn whether college students respond differently to conflict-of-interest vignettes in three different relationship contexts. Students were more likely to make negative interpretations about…

This study used a social exchange framework to examine the features of non-romantic other-sex (OS) friendships compared with same-sex (SS) friendships and romantic relationships. High school seniors (N = 141) completed open-ended interviews about the benefits and costs of having OS friendships, SS friendships, and romantic relationships in…

The present study provides a comparative analysis of sexual-minority and heterosexual emerging adult women's experiences seeking support for sexual issues from parents and friends. Participants included 229 college women (88 sexual-minority women; 141 heterosexual women), ranging from 18 to 25 years of age, who provided written responses to an…

The aim of the present study was to explore the social cognitions of socially withdrawn anxious early-adolescents regarding the concept of friendship. From a pool of children referred to an after-school social skills and social contact program, 38 withdrawn/anxious participants were identified and matched with community controls. Interviews…

Examined the hypotheses that intimacy of friendship is more integral to socioemotional adjustment during adolescence than during preadolescence, and that competence in close relationship skills is more important during adolescence than preadolescence. Findings suggest the importance of the ability to establish close friendships increases during…

This study assessed second-, third-, fifth-, and sixth-graders' perceptions of relationship quality with a reciprocal classroom friend and a reciprocal classroom best friend. Findings demonstrated that best friends rated higher in quality than did friends on four of seven dimensions. Best friends exhibited more response congruence than did friends…

This study examined how relocation to a new community affects intimacy and companionship in close friendships by comparing experiences of early adolescents who began their 7th or 8th grade school year in a new community (111 boys, 96 girls) with those of residentially stable agemates (30 boys, 38 girls). Drawing from a developmental contextual,…

Noting that when adolescents select friends, they are creating a relationship context that will be an important source of influence, this study examined the criteria adolescents use when choosing friends. Adolescents in grades 7 and 10 were interviewed about the criteria they used when selecting friends, particularly the importance they placed…

Fourteen male and 14 female gifted and 14 male and 14 female nongifted adolescents completed questionnaires about intimacy with the closest same-sex friend and attachment style. Results suggest that gifted adolescents may have a stronger instrumental orientation than others, something that does not give them an advantage in friendship in…

The extent of isomorphism between parent-child to child-friend microsocial interactions was studied by means of videotaped laboratory and observation coding procedures. Similar tasks, coding systems, and behavior clusters were used to describe the topography of parent-child and child-friend interactions. A total of 200 boys were observed while…

Noting that during adolescence the importance of feeling intimate or close to a relationship partner (mothers, fathers, or friends) increases and that closeness to parents is associated with positive adolescent outcomes, this study examined how features of adolescent relationships are related to adolescents' experience of subjective closeness in…

Compared perceptions of intimacy in friendships among Israeli Jewish (IJ) and Israeli Bedouin (IB) adolescents. Results from 288 IJ and 327 IB junior and senior high school students show that intimacy was perceived to reflect a balance between closeness and individuality in close friendships. Closeness and individuality appear to govern all close…

Assessed multiple features of social support provided by mothers, fathers, siblings, and friends to Indonesian and U.S. elementary and junior high school students. Found that Indonesian youth ranked family members higher and friends lower on companionship and satisfaction than did U.S. youth. Friends were seen as the primary sources of intimacy in…