Introduction to the Special Issue: Gender and Children's Friendships: Do Girls' and Boys' Friendships Constitute Different Peer Cultures, and What Are the Trade-Offs for Development?

Abstract

Two theoretical perspectives are introduced as frameworks for organizing these essays on gender and friendship. The two cultures perspective (Maccoby, 1998) logically begins with the robust phenomenon of gender segregation from the preschool years through middle childhood and proposes that girls' and boys' groups develop different peer cultures and socialize one another in different ways. The second approach extends the two cultures theory by proposing that distinctive features of girls' and boys' peer relationships confer particular developmental advantages but also vulnerabilities for each group (Rose & Rudolph, 2006). This introduction outlines how the results of the six empirical studies in this special issue might inform the two cultures and emotional trade-offs perspectives.