Friendship Processes Research Articles

Toward a Sociological Perspective on the Gender and Sexuality of Friendship

ABSTRACTThis article reviews friendship research to offer a conceptual framework that helps us better understand the co‐constructive nature of gender, sexuality, and friendship in the United States. Scholarship across psychology and sociology considers friendship experiences, friendship processes, friendship patterns, friendship schemas, and the social implications of friendship. Psychological research identifies that friendship experiences and friendships processes differ by gender and explores the social implications for individuals. While sociology has dedicated less attention to friendship, this perspective offers insights on the social construction and structural basis of friendship. Sociological perspectives reveal how friendship schemas—based in amatonormativity, heteronormativity, and gender essentialism—shape friendship experiences, friendship processes, and friendship patterns in gendered ways. In addition, sociological research examines the social implications of friendship at both individual and institutional levels, documenting friendship's roles in systems of inequality. Thus, I argue that a sociological perspective is necessary to fully grasp how societies in general and cultural understandings of gender and sexuality in particular, shape and are shaped by friendships.

How Do Adolescent Friendships End and How Do Adolescents Experience and Interpret This Development?

Friendships become much more important during adolescence. Although puberty leads to a more stable friendship by age, some adolescents maintain their friendships steadily, while others end their relationships in a short time. Despite the potential significance of friendship breakdowns, little is known about the nature of their dissolution. Since losing a friend, who is a source of both instrumental and emotional support for individuals, means losing an important person, it is important to evaluate why adolescents' friendships deteriorate and what happens in this process. The aim of this study is to deal with the conflict situation, which is one of the factors affecting the deterioration of adolescents' friendships. The rates of deterioration in friendships, especially close ones, indicate that many adolescents struggle with this challenging task. In this context; The importance of friendship for adolescents, its functions and loss of friendship, the development process of friendship and the maintenance of relationships, reasons for conflict, conflict resolution strategies and adolescents' experiences are mentioned. Concessions from important friendship obligations such as trust, betrayal, jealousy in other relationships, help and closeness in friendships of adolescents constitute the causes of conflict. This review study contributes to understanding the reasons for the deterioration of adolescents' friendship relations and the effects of this situation on adolescents.

КОНЦЕПТ DOSTLUK В ТУРЕЦКОЙ ЯЗЫКОВОЙ КАРТИНЕ МИРА

The article aims at studying the concept DOSTLUK (FRIENDSHIP) in the Turkish language world view. Being one of the basic ethical categories in human consciousness, this concept is verbalized through a variety of linguistic means and reflects the spiritual values of the ethnic group. The purpose of the study is to identify the cognitive features of the cultural concept DOSTLUK based on the assumption of its multi-layer structure including semantic, imagery and value constituents. The research material includes Turkish explanatory dictionaries, dictionaries of Turkish proverbs and sayings as well as the data from the Turkish National Corpus (TUD). The diversity of the problem under study determines the choice of various research methods: cognitive analysis of definitions, component analysis, contextual analysis, cognitive interpretation, framing techniques, etc. The semantic component of the concept DOSTLUK is represented as a frame including the subframes “Friendship as an Attitude/Relationship”, “Friendship as a Feeling/State”, “Subject(s) of Friendship”, “The Process of Friendship” and “The Value of Friendship”. The imagery component of the concept DOSTLUK is implemented with the help of metaphors (mainly artifact and natural). The value component of the concept is realized through various linguistic means containing evaluation, as well as the high frequency of use of the concept verbalizers that make up its nominative field. The author concludes that the concept DOSTLUK is a linguocultural ethical mental formation that models the situation and the state of friendship, with a pronounced value component.

Examining the Dynamic Interplay of Motivation and Friendships within a Collegiate Extracurricular Activity in the U.S.: The Case of Marching Band

Research links extracurricular activity (ECA) participation to developmental outcomes, yet little is known about social processes that occur within ECAs. We examine associations between motivation (intrinsic, extrinsic) and friendship processes (selection, influence) within a collegiate marching band in the US (n=193). Using social network analysis, we found evidence of selection, but not influence, on motivation. Selection findings differed by motivation type, such that extrinsic motivation was associated with increased friend nominations, whereas intrinsic motivation was associated with decreased nominations. Unexpected findings are explained by the context of this highly specialized ECA. Implications for supporting motivation in extended education settings are discussed.

Relations between school bullying, friendship processes, and school context

ABSTRACT Background Despite considerable anti–bullying efforts and greater awareness of the social processes underpinning bullying, bullying is still a serious problem across schools in many countries. In exploring the social processes that contribute to school bullying, research indicates complex relationships between bullying and the maintenance and building of friendships. While such findings provide important information about the social context of school bullying, more needs to be understood about the institutional context within which school bullying – and friendship – occur. Purpose The aim of this study is to better understand how school bullying relates to friendship processes, and how these are, in turn, influenced by the institutional constraints of the school context. Method The findings discussed draw on 3 months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted at one Swedish elementary school. The fieldwork involved participant observations, as well as semi–structured group interviews with 34 sixth-grade pupils (approx. 12 years of age), which were conducted towards the end of the fieldwork. Data were analysed thematically. Findings The analysis highlighted the importance of friendships to pupils but also identified the ways in which understandings of friendship relations were closely tied to the importance of social perceptions and the organisational constraints of the school context. Conclusions Taken together, the findings suggest that school bullying cannot be de–contextualised from the social and institutional contexts of school but may rather be connected to the perceived need for control in that particular arena. The study draws attention to how the complex relations between bullying, friendship and school context need to be better understood, in order to support efforts to prevent school bullying.

Linking post-stressor interpersonal processes in adolescent girls’ close friendships with acute HPA stress responses

IntroductionFor adolescent girls, close friendships may facilitate stress management and mitigate risk for internalizing psychopathology. However, little is known about how friendship processes may buffer (or potentially exacerbate) acute psychobiological responses to interpersonal stressors in ways that affect risk. MethodsIn a sample of 220 girls (ages 12–17 years) with a history of internalizing symptoms, this study investigated friendship dynamics following the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) to evaluate associations between post-stressor friendship behaviors (expressions of vulnerability by the stressed teen; support offered by their close friend) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis stress responses. ResultsMultilevel regression modeling revealed that girls who displayed more pronounced cortisol reactivity expressed greater vulnerability to, and received greater support from, their close friend. Expressed vulnerability was associated with more efficient cortisol recovery. Close friend support was not significantly associated with cortisol recovery, nor did it influence the connection between expressed vulnerability and cortisol recovery. ConclusionsFindings suggest that HPA reactivity may prompt expressions of vulnerability to girls' close friends, and in this context, promote more efficient HPA recovery. Findings highlight the role friendship dynamics may play in HPA-related risk for internalizing symptoms and point to expressed vulnerability in adolescent girls’ close friendships as a potential consideration for interpersonally-centered therapeutic approaches.

The Role of Prosocial and Aggressive Popularity Norm Combinations in Prosocial and Aggressive Friendship Processes

Prior work has shown that popular peers can set a powerful norm for the valence and salience of aggression in adolescent classrooms, which enhances aggressive friendship processes (selection, maintenance, influence). It is unknown, however, whether popular peers also set a norm for prosocial behavior that can buffer against aggressive friendship processes and stimulate prosocial friendship processes. This study examined the role of prosocial and aggressive popularity norm combinations in prosocial and aggressive friendship processes. Three waves of peer-nominated data were collected in the first- and second year of secondary school (N = 1816 students; 81 classrooms; Mage = 13.06; 50.5% girl). Longitudinal social network analyses indicate that prosocial popularity norms have most power to affect both prosocial and aggressive friendship processes when aggressive popularity norms are non-present. In prosocial classrooms (low aggressive and high prosocial popularity norms), friendship maintenance based on prosocial behavior is enhanced, whereas aggressive friendship processes are largely mitigated. Instead, when aggressive popularity norms are equally strong as prosocial norms (mixed classrooms) or even stronger than prosocial norms (aggressive classrooms), aggression is more important for friendship processes than prosocial behavior. These findings show that the prosocial behavior of popular peers may only buffer against aggressive friendship processes and stimulate prosocial friendship processes if these popular peers (or other popular peers in the classroom) abstain from aggression.

The role of academic status norms in friendship selection and influence processes related to academic achievement.

This study examined the role of academic status norms in friendship selection and influence processes related to academic achievement across the 2nd year of secondary school (SNARE project; N = 1,549 students from 70 classes; Mage = 13.69 years). Academic status norms were operationalized as the class-level correlation between academic achievement and 4 types of peer status: popularity, acceptance, unpopularity, and rejection. Longitudinal social network analyses indicated that the unpopularity and popularity norm play a role in friendship selection processes (but not influence processes) related to academic achievement. In line with our hypotheses, the unpopularity norm in the classroom strengthened similarity-based friendship selection among low-achieving adolescents and predicted greater avoidance of academically similar friends among high-achieving adolescents. Also, the popularity norm strengthened friendship selection among similar peers, both among low and high achievers. Acceptance and rejection norms did not play a role in friendship processes. In sum, the average achievement of popular and unpopular peers shapes friendship preferences in the classroom, which may have important implications for adolescent academic development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Friendship Processes Around Prosocial and Aggressive Behaviors: The Role of Teacher–Student Relatedness and Differences Between Elementary-School and Middle-School Classrooms

This study examined the friendship processes around prosocial and aggressive behaviors and the moderating role of early adolescents' perceived relatedness with teachers. Differences between fifth graders in elementary school and sixth graders in middle school were examined. The sample was from 48 classrooms (N = 879, 51% girls at Wave 1, N = 859, 51% girls at Wave 2; 27 fifth-grade classrooms and 21 sixth-grade classrooms). With longitudinal social network analysis (RSiena [Simulation Investigation for Empirical Network Analysis]; see Ripley, Snijders, Boda, Voros, & Preciado, 2017), we found that friends were similar to each other in pro-social behavior, as well as aggressive behavior, and this similarity was due to selection, as well as influence effects. In general, there was a preference for prosocial friends as they tended to receive the most friend nominations. Perceived relatedness with their teacher amplified students' preference toward prosocial peers as friends, as well as decreased students' preference for aggressive peers as friends. Friendship processes and the moderating role of relatedness with one's teacher showed some differences between fifth and sixth graders. Sixth graders in middle school were less attracted to prosocial peers as friends and showed higher overall prevalence of aggressive behavior compared to fifth graders in elementary school. The moderating role of relatedness with their teacher on friendship preference toward highly prosocial and less aggressive peers was stronger for sixth graders compared to fifth graders.

초기 청소년기 또래거부의 사회화 과정 - 친구네트워크와 교사-학생 관계의 영향

이 연구는 초기 청소년기 또래거부의 사회화 과정(또래선택과 또래영향)을 살펴보고, 교사와 학생의 관계가 또래거부의 정도에 미치는 영향을 탐색하고자 하였다. 이를 위하여 서울, 경기 지역 초등학교 총 43학급 1,131명의 5-6학년 학생(여학생 48%)을 대상으로, 1학기와 2학기 총 2회에 걸쳐 또래지명방식으로 청소년의 또래거부와 친구네트워크를 측정하였다. 종단 사회연결망 분석(RSiena) 결과, 초기 청소년기 학생들은 또래거부 수준이 비슷한 또래를 친구로 선택하고, 청소년의 또래거부 수준은 친구의 또래거부 수준에 영향을 받는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 학생과 교사의 관계가 긍정적일수록 또래거부의 수준이 낮아지는 반면, 학생과 교사의 부정적인 관계는 또래거부의 수준을 높이는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 친구네트워크가 또래거부의 사회화에 중요한 영향을 미치며, 초기 청소년기 학생의 또래거부의 영향요인으로서 교사-학생 관계를 고려해야 할 필요성을 시사한다.

The role of career concerns and workplace friendship in the job embeddedness–retention practices satisfaction link

Orientation: The demand for retaining top talent in the highly competitive and turbulent working environment has made retention research relevant and important. A central question in retention research revolves around the psychological factors that drive employees to remain at an organisation. Research purpose: This research explores the mediating and conditional (moderating) processes underlying the link between employees’ job embeddedness and satisfaction with organisational retention practices. Motivation for the study: Several research studies are available with regard to the association between job embeddedness and retention practices. However, there seems to be a paucity of information available on the psychological process of workplace friendship underlying the job embeddedness–retention practices satisfaction link, as well as the boundary conditions of this process as set by employees’ career concerns. Research design, approach and method: The study followed a cross-sectional, quantitative research design. Data were collected from a convenience sample of (N= 200) permanently employed staff members within a South African higher education institution. Moderated-mediation analysis was performed to achieve the research objective. Main findings: The findings indicated career concerns as important boundary conditions for the psychological (mediating) process of workplace friendship in the job embeddedness–retention practices satisfaction link. Practical/managerial implications: Enhancing work conditions and practices to support the evolving career development needs and concerns of valuable employees may be key to maintaining person–environment correspondence and retaining them. Contribution or value-add: The findings extend retention theory by adding new insights into under what circumstances employees’ job embeddedness positively influences their satisfaction with organisational retention practices. The study provides new evidence of the important role of employees’ career development needs in retention theory and practice.

Transformation of Adolescent Peer Relations in the Social Media Context: Part 1-A Theoretical Framework and Application to Dyadic Peer Relationships.

Investigators have long recognized that adolescents' peer experiences provide a crucial context for the acquisition of developmental competencies, as well as potential risks for a range of adjustment difficulties. However, recent years have seen an exponential increase in adolescents' adoption of social media tools, fundamentally reshaping the landscape of adolescent peer interactions. Although research has begun to examine social media use among adolescents, researchers have lacked a unifying framework for understanding the impact of social media on adolescents' peer experiences. This paper represents Part 1 of a two-part theoretical review, in which we offer a transformation framework to integrate interdisciplinary social media scholarship and guide future work on social media use and peer relations from a theory-driven perspective. We draw on prior conceptualizations of social media as a distinct interpersonal context and apply this understanding to adolescents' peer experiences, outlining features of social media with particular relevance to adolescent peer relations. We argue that social media transforms adolescent peer relationships in five key ways: by changing the frequency or immediacy of experiences, amplifying experiences and demands, altering the qualitative nature of interactions, facilitating new opportunities for compensatory behaviors, and creating entirely novel behaviors. We offer an illustration of the transformation framework applied to adolescents' dyadic friendship processes (i.e., experiences typically occurring between two individuals), reviewing existing evidence and offering theoretical implications. Overall, the transformation framework represents a departure from the prevailing approaches of prior peer relations work and a new model for understanding peer relations in the social media context.

The moderating role of popular peers’ achievement goals in 5th- and 6th-graders’ achievement-related friendships: A social network analysis.

This research investigated whether classroom-based peer norms for achievement goals moderate friendship selection, maintenance and influence processes related to academic achievement in 46 Grade 5 and Grade 6 classrooms (N = 901, 58.7% Grade 5 students, 48.5% boys). A distinction was made between peer norms for mastery (i.e., developing competence) and performance (i.e., demonstrating competence) goals. Peer norms were measured in terms of popularity norms (the within-classroom correlation between student achievement goals and popularity) and descriptive norms (the class-level aggregated average achievement goals). As hypothesized, longitudinal social network analyses revealed that achievement goal popularity norms played a role in friendship processes, rather than achievement goal descriptive norms. Specifically, adolescents formed friendships with similarly achieving peers in classrooms with high performance goal popularity norms but not in classrooms with low performance goal popularity norms. Conversely, adolescents remained friends with similarly achieving peers in classrooms with low performance goal popularity norms but not in classrooms with high performance goal popularity norms. Furthermore, friendship influence on achievement took place in classrooms with high mastery goal popularity norms, but not in classrooms with low mastery goal popularity norms. This study indicates that friendship processes regarding achievement depend upon the extent to which certain achievement goals are made salient by virtue of their association with popularity in classrooms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

INTENSI MEMILIH MAHASISWA DALAM PEMILIHAN KEPALA DAERAH (PILKADA) TAHUN 2015 DITINJAU DARI POLA ASUH DEMOKRATIS ORANG TUA DAN KONFORMITAS TEMAN SEBAYA

Political Socialization is the process of obtaining a person's attitude and orientation towards political phenomena which are generally applicable in the community where it is located. Political socialization received individual will also affect the intention or the intention to participate in politics. Two agents in political socialization plays an important role especially for first-time voters are agents of family and peers. In the family, took parenting parents against children, and the ongoing process of peer friendship conformity.Based on the research conducted, there is simultaneously a significant relationship between democratic parenting style of parents and peer conformity to the intention pick on students in elections 2015. The democratic parenting parents positively and significantly related to the intention pick on students in election 2015, (sig. 0.008 <0.05) where more democratic parenting parents (positive), the greater the intention of selecting students in the elections of 2015. Conformity peers positively and significantly related to the intention pick on students in the elections of 2015 (sig. 0.012 <0.05), where the greater conformity peers, the greater the intention of selecting students in elections 2015.Cultural discussion and sharing is done with the parents and with peers are expected to be able to establish the mindset of students in a more rational in terms of choosing. So this will increase the intention to memlih. Not on the basis of follow - follow-up alone, but for their consciousness to be intelligent and rational voters, so that it can account for the results of his own choice.

The occurrence of earlier changes in family dynamics and friendship conflict predicting adolescent functional somatic symptoms: A large-scale prospective study.

To better understand the role earlier stressful environments have in predicting functional somatic symptoms (FSS) in late adolescence, this study explores the effect the occurrence of earlier changes in family dynamics and friendship conflict have on FSS. We used data from the Consortium for Longitudinal Studies on Child Abuse and Neglect (N = 1,314), a large, prospective study of children at risk for maltreatment and their parent/caregiver from approximately 4 to 18 years of age. We found a significant, small (Effect Size = .10), positive association between the frequency of family dynamic change during middle childhood (ages 6-12 years) and FSS at age 18 but not during middle adolescence (ages 14 and 16). Conflict with a same-sex best friend at age 16 moderated the association between the frequency of change and FSS. The frequency of family dynamic change in middle childhood and middle adolescence was associated with greater FSS among those who reported greater conflict but not for those who reported experiencing lower conflict. Overall, these effects were specific to friendship conflict and remained when other friendship processes (intimacy and companionship) were included, did not generalize to anxiety/depressive symptoms, and predicted FSS without comorbid anxiety/depressive symptoms. No gender differences were found. The change-conflict interaction differed according to type of family dynamic change (parental vs. residential). Findings emphasize how earlier exposure to frequent changes in family dynamics in middle childhood is particularly associated with late-adolescent health, especially in the context of greater friendship conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record

Authenticity in friendships and well‐being in adolescence

AbstractOnly a handful of studies have focused on understanding how authenticity in close relationships may be related to individuals’ well‐being. In this study we examined whether authenticity in a friendship was related to greater adjustment during adolescence. Participants were 318 sixth‐ and ninth‐grade students (155 boys; Mage = 13.46, SDage = 1.51). Our results show that adolescents who feel more authentic have more positive self‐views, are less lonely at school, and more satisfied with their relationship. Importantly, authenticity–adjustment associations remained significant after controlling for positive friendship quality and conflict. These findings suggest that authenticity should be more often incorporated into the study of different friendship processes.

Friendship Development and Intergroup Attitudes: The Role of Interpersonal and Intergroup Friendship Processes

Although there is a growing body of work concerning cross‐group friendship and intergroup attitudes, this work typically focuses on a limited number of interpersonal processes among established friendships. In addition, little is known about the role of group‐related processes within such friendships. Two studies were conducted to address this gap. Results from a retrospective online survey and a longitudinal study reveal that both interpersonal friendship processes (e.g., intimacy, affection, trust, self‐disclosure) and intergroup friendship processes (e.g., belief that outgroup friend respects one's own group, spending time with outgroup friend's family members and friends) are associated with positive intergroup attitudes. Specifically, the current findings suggest that interpersonal friendship processes are vital to fostering positive attitudes for the outgroup early in the relationship, but that intergroup friendship processes become more strongly linked to attitudes once the relationship progresses. Results may inform interventions designed to promote positive interactions across “real‐world” group boundaries.

Teachers as learners – with a little help from a critical friend

Professional learning is intended to improve teaching, benefit student learning and in the longer term improve achievement of targets in schools. When teachers take responsibility not only for their own learning but also for their colleagues’, it can lead to a shift in attitudes towards collaborative learning. This study presents an example of a professional learning community (PLC) based on teachers’ engagement in systematic inquiries. The aim of the study was to explore crucial factors during the process of critical friendship that could be related to a PLC. The research context was a series of shadowing sessions where teachers were expected to document teaching and provide feedback. The analyses are mainly based on documentation, in the form of shadowing logs produced when teachers study each other in action. Findings indicate that the role of critical friend was hard to internalise and that most of the teachers did not use it to its full potential for learning, according to the Vygotskian concept of the zone of proximal development. Three crucial factors for learning in a PLC are addressed: active choices related to teachers’ and students’ learning during different phases in the inquiry; the complexity of mastering several skills in action research at the same time; and the teachers’ attitudes to professional learning.

Teen Alcohol Use and Social Networks: The Contributions of Friend Influence and Friendship Selection.

BackgroundWe evaluated the contributions of teen alcohol use to the formation and continuation of new and existing friendships while in turn estimating the influence of friend drinking on individuals’ regular use and heavy drinking.MethodLongitudinal network analysis was used to assess the mutual influences between teen drinking and social networks among adolescents in two large Add Health schools where full network data was collected three times. Friendship processes were disaggregated into the formation of new friendships and the continuation of existing friendships in a joint model isolating friendship selection and friend influences.ResultsFriends have a modest influence on one another when selection is controlled. Selection is more complicated than prior studies suggest, and is only related to new friendships and not their duration in the largest school. Alcohol use predicts decreasing popularity in some cases, and popularity does not predict alcohol consumption.ConclusionIntervention efforts should continue pursuing strategies that mitigate negative peer influences. The development of socializing opportunities that facilitate relationship opportunities to select on healthy behaviors also appears promising. Future work preventing teen substance use should incorporate longitudinal network assessments to determine whether programs promote protective peer relationships in addition to how treatment effects diffuse through social networks.

Queer Company: The Role and Meaning of Friendship in Gay Men’s Work Lives

Drawn from in-depth qualitative research, Queer Company provides the first extended, academic analysis of gay men's workplace friendships, offering theoretical and empirical insights into a subject that is timely and important. Although theoretically framed in poststructuralism and the sociology of friendship, this book also draws on feminism, organisation studies, gender and sexuality studies to explore the diverse roles and meanings of gay men's workplace friendships. Shedding light on the significance of workplace friendship for those who participate in them, particularly in terms of how these workplace relationships can help gay men to construct meaningful identities and selves, Queer Company examines the manner in which gay men's workplace friendships are established, developed and organised, whilst considering the effects of organisational contexts upon friendship processes. A detailed investigation of the links between friendship, sexuality, gender and intimacy in the workplace, this book will appeal to scholars of management studies as well as sociologists with interests in gender and sexuality, the sociology of organisations and cultural studies.