Mixed Sex Friendship Groups Among Early Adolescents

Traditionally, young men and women preferred friends of their own sex and engaged in sex-specific activities with them. Male friendships centered on shared activities such as sports, cars, and contests (sometimes fighting with words, not weapons). Women’s friendships were more intimate and emotional, involving self-disclosing talk about health, romances, and relatives (p.437)

A standardization of 1,000 individuals was drawn from youth ages 7-18 from the geographic areas in the North, South, Midwest, and West (Flanagan & Henington, 2005). Within the 1,000 sample 400 youth were ages 7-14, and there were 200 adolescents with ages ranging from 15-18 (Flanagan & Henington, 2005). Variables included age, gender, race, and parental education (Flanagan & Henington, 2005). Different sites were sampled from rural, urban, and suburban areas. Also, within those sites, samples included schools, churches, and community centers (Flanagan & Henington, 2005). According to Flanagan & Henington (2005), “…selection criteria for participants included English as the primary language, at least a second grade

Social Psychology also focuses on social behaviour, people’s thoughts, feelings friendship and how we interact with other people. A prime example of this is in a study carried out by Brian Bigelow and John La Gaipa [1975] when they carried out a study on children’s friendship. Bigelow and La Gaipa wanted to explore what understanding children had on friendship and how it changed with the children’s age group and of the same sex. Bigelow and La Gaipa began their research by asking a group of children to write an essay in regards to their best friend who had to be of the same sex the children was asked to write what their expectations were from their friend. To enable this research to be conducted Bigelow and La Gaipa completed a list of Twenty

When it comes to investigating friendship, one question that has been raised is ‘what is the role of friendship in the life of a 13 year old?’’. Several sources of data include ethnographic notes taken whilst spending time with a group of friends during school lunch breaks and diary/blog entries etc. Firstly, in this case the researcher would need to carefully consider the strengths and weaknesses of each type of data, for example, when looking at a blog the information/data available is likely to be information that the author wants to share with a wider audience whereas a diary entry is more private. In this case, both documents

Compare and Contrast the approach to studying children’s friendships taken in the Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) study with that taken by William Corsaro.

In the early 1970’s little was known regarding children’s friendships. Bigalow and La Gaipa (1975) assessed developmental differences by having grade school children write 480 essays on what they expected of their best friend that was not expected from other

In contrast Corsaro emphasised in what friendship means in particular places at particular times and how children communicate each other in real life conditions in their natural environments. Bigelow and La Gaipa used the “content analysis” for they studies. They took a sample of 480 formal interviews from 8 schools (30 boys and 30 girls from each school, between the ages of six and fourteen) in written, text format with questions concerning the nature of the friendship between them and their best friend of the same sex, about what they felt were important on these relationships, about what they expected from them and what were the differences between their best friends and other friends and acquaintances.

Friendship has been researched with different approaches including both quantitative and qualitative types. One of these is ethnographic approach in which the researcher joins the researched group and carries out observation over certain time. This essay will evaluate its contribution to research on friendship focusing on the Corsaro’s (1985 cited in Brownlow, 2012) ethnographic study on children’s friendship. Firstly, focusing on its benefits. Secondly, moving to shortcomings. Finally, it will evaluate it in the context of social sciences’ methodology.

Within the study, the demographics of the participants were made available, including gender, age, race and ethnicity, marital status, and educational and employment status. Special consideration and statistical analysis was conducted for those in the High

The period of adolescence is crucial in the development of identity and social integration, and for many teens can be very trying. From the moment children begin attending programs such as daycare and elementary schooling, they are transferred from an environment that no longer exclusively contains their parents, to one where they are integrated with other children who are similar in age; also known as peers. In the United States, adolescents spend twice the amount of time within peer groups from a day to day basis than with their parents (Dijkstra & Veenstra 2011). The socialization that occurs within these peer groups plays a large role in influencing the behaviors of adolescents during this developmental period; whether reinforcing positive behaviors such as academic achievement or encouraging questionable behavior and delinquency. The importance of peer groups in contemporary society is accurately represented in the 2004 movie Mean Girls, adapted from self-help book The Queen Bee’s and Wannabees, depicting the life of a young adolescent who struggles to prove herself worthy of being accepted by the dominant social group. Whether it is deciding on identifying with the ‘Brains’ or choosing to imitate the ‘Cheerleaders’ in hopes of obtaining status, overall adolescent behavior is greatly influenced by their peer groups.

Adolescent girls interact with other girls on a more social level and their relationships are more intimate (Catanzaro, 2011). Boys however build friendships based on activities and common hobbies. This distinction is important because it could explain the difference in bullying behavior between girls and

In this summary, Frist, I will provide a narrative of the variables measured from the High School Longitudinal Study database. Secondly, I will give an explanation of the unit analysis. Next, I will give a description and clarify of the levels of measurement for each variable. Finally, I will enlighten readers on how to perceive these variables to be used to answer the question: What might be the implications for social change?

Adolescent substance use is a serious issue in the United States. Children as young as nine years old and adolescents are experimenting with licit substances, such as tobacco (McWhirter, McWhirter, McWhirter, & McWhirter, 2013). When adolescents experiment with tobacco and alcohol, they are more likely to experiment with harder drugs, such as marijuana, methamphetamines, and inhalants (McWhirter et al, 2013). The use of drugs and alcohol can cause adolescents to engage in more risky and deviant behavior. Thus, it is imperative for counselors and other helping professionals to understand the predictors behind adolescent drug and alcohol use. This paper will discuss three of the main predictors of adolescent drug and alcohol use, which are family-related variables, peer-related variables, and individual variables and how they are connected to the potential substance use of at-risk youth.

This article seeks to empirically measure the degree to which peer groups, specifically friendship groups, exert a normative influence on some aspects of gender identity in adolescents. This theory had not been tested empirically, although the authors cite previous studies to this effect on gender-typical behaviours of younger children and on the significant impact of peers on other areas of adolescent social development. In order to measure adolescents’ evolving understanding of gender identity, the researchers employed longitudinal social network analysis after surveying a diverse body of students. Furthermore, this particular method was utilised to discern whether adolescents tend to emulate the norms of their peers or whether friends are

The social environment of teens holds an enormous influence on how the teens act and behave. Teens are easily influenced by their surroundings and they look to others for guidance. Their behavior results from that of the parent and peer influences. Parents play a particularly influential role in their child’s life and it is up to them to make sure that they are leading their sons or daughters in the right directions. A teen’s peers also play a large role in how the teen behaves when the parents are not around. A teen’s social environment, consisting of family and peers, plays a vital role in their life, therefore becoming the ultimate cause of juvenile delinquency.