Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Similarity in adolescent best friendships: the role of gender

  • Article
  • Published:
Netherlands journal of psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine dyadic similarity among mutual adolescent best friends and the moderating role of gender in this similarity. Questionnaire data were gathered from 267 Dutch adolescent same-sex best friends (mean age = 14.58). Results showed that both boys and girls were found to be more similar to their mutual best friend in the Big Five personality traits extraversion and agreeableness. Furthermore, only girls were more similar to their mutual best friend than randomised pairs in problem behaviour and perceived relationship characteristics. In general, similarity seems to play a larger role in mutual best friendships between girls than between boys. (Netherlands Journal of Psychology 63, 50-57.)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aboud, F.E., & Mendelsohn, M.J. (1998). Determinants of friendship selection and quality: developmental perspectives. In A.F. Newcomb & W.M. Bukowski (Eds.). The company they keep: friendship in childhood and adolescence. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asendorpf, J.B., & van Aken, M.A.G. (2003). Personality-Relationship Transaction in Adolescence: Core Versus Surface Personality Characteristics. Journal of Personality, 71, 629-666.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bagwell, C.L., & Coie, J.D. (2004). The best friendship of aggressive boys: Relationship quality, conflict management, and rule-breaking behavior. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 88, 5-24.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, B. (1986). Influence again: Another look at studies of gender differences in social influence. In J.S. Hyde & M.C. Linn (Eds.). The psychology of gender: advances through meta-analysis. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berndt, T.J., & Keefe, K. (1995). Friends' influence on adolescents' adjustment to school. Child Development, 66, 1312-1329.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Björkqvist, K., Lagerspetz, K.M.J., & Österman, K. (1992). The Direct and Indirect Aggression Scales. Vasa, Finland: Abo Akademi University, Department of Social Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, M.L., & Ayers, M. (1992). Friendship similarity during early adolescence: Gender and racial patterns. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 126, 393-405.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. (1977). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. New York: academic press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, H.M. (1979). Statistically combining independent studies: A meta-analysis of sex differences in conformity research. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 131-146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Degirmencioglu, S.M., Urberg, K.A., Tolson, J.M., & Richard, P. (1998). Adolescent friendship networks: Continuity and change over the school year. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 44, 313-337.

    Google Scholar 

  • DePaulo, B.M., Kenny, D.A., Hoover, C.W., & Webb, W. (1987). Accuracy of person perception: Do people know what kinds of impressions they convey? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 303-315.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fang, X. (2001). Similarity between adolescents and their same-gender best friends. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 29(3), 278-285.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fonzi, A., & Tani, F. (2002). Personality characteristics and friendship selection during preadolescence / Caratteristiche personali e scelta degli amici nella preadolescenza. Eta Evolutiva, 72, 26-34.

    Google Scholar 

  • French, D.C., Jansen, E.A., Riansari, M., & Setiono, K. (2003). Friendships of Indonesian Children: Adjustment of Children Who Differ in Friendship Presence and Similarity Between Mutual Friends. Social Development, 12, 606-621.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Funder, D.C., & Colvin, C.R. (1991). Explorations in behavioral consistency: properties of persons, situations, and behaviors. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 773-794.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Furman, W., & Buhrmester, D. (1985). Children's perceptions of the personal relationship in their social networks. Developmental Psychology, 21, 1016-1024.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, L.R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4(1), 26-42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffon-Smith, M.E., & Brownwell, C.A. (2003). Childhood peer relationships: Social acceptance, friendships, and peer networks. Journal of School Psychology, 41, 235-284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haggard, E.A. (1958). Intraclass correlation and the analysis of variance. Oxford, England: Holt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamm, J. (2000). Do birds of a feather flock together? The variable bases for African, Asian American, and European American adolescents' selection of similar friends. Developmental Psychology, 36, 209-219.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haselager, G.J.T., Hartup, W.W., Van Lieshout, C.F.M., & Riksen-Walraven, J.M.A. (1999). Similarities between friends and nonfriends in middle childhood. Child Development, 69, 1198-1208.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaccard, J., Blanton, H., & Dodge, T. (2005). Peer Influences on Risk Behavior: An Analysis of the Effects of a Close Friend. Developmental Psychology, 41, 135-147.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jensen-Campbell, L.-A., Adams, R., Perry, D.G., Workman, K.A., Furdella, J.Q., & Egan, S.K. (2002). Agreeableness, extraversion, and peer relations in early adolescence: Winning friends and deflecting aggression. Journal of Research in Personality, 36, 224-251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, H. (2004). Gender, grade and relationship differences in emotional closeness within adolescent friendships. Adolescence, 39, 243-255.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kandel, D.B. (1978a). Homophily, selection, and socialization in adolescents friendships. The American Journal of Sociology, 84, 427-436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kandel, D.B. (1978b). Similarity in real-life adolescent friendship pairs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 306-312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kenny, D.A., Albright, L., Malloy, T.E., & Kashy, D. A. (1994). Consensus in interpersonal attraction: acquaintance and the Big Five. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 245-258.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kenny, D.A., Kashy, D..A., & Cook, W. (in press). The Analysis of Dyadic Data.

  • Klohnen, E.C., & Mendelsohn, G.A. (1998). Partner selection for personality characteristics: A couple-centered approach. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 268-278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kovacs, M. (1992). Children's Depression Inventory, CDI Manual. North Tonawanda (NY): Multi-Health Systems.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurdek, L.A., & Krile, D. (1982). A developmental analysis of the relation between peer acceptance and both interpersonal understanding and perceived social self-competence. Child Development, 53, 1485-1491.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meeus, W., Akse, J., Branje, S., Ter Bogt, T., Engels, R., Finkenauer, C., et al. (2004). Codebook CONAMORE: CONflicts And Management Of RElationships. Utrecht University, Faculty of Social Sciences: Unpublished manuscript.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mounts, N.S., & Steinberg, L. (1995). An ecological analysis of peer influence on adolescent grade point average and drug use. Developmental Psychology , 31, 915-922.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, L.M. (2005). Friends are not more similar than nonfriends, but they think that they are. Paper presented at the SRCD, Atlantis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newcomb, A.F., & Bagwell, C.L. (1995). Children's friendship relations - a meta analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 306-347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newcomb, A.F., Bukowski, W.M., & Bagwell, C.L. (1999). Knowing the sounds: Friendship as a developmental context. In W.A. Collins & B. Laursen (Eds.). Relationships as developmental contexts. Mahwah, NJ, US Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poulin, F., Dishion, T.J., & Haas, E. (1999). The peer influence paradox: Friendship quality and deviancy training within male adolescent friendships. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 45, 42-61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodgers, J.L., Billy, J.O., & Udry, J.R. (1984). A model of friendship similarity in mildly deviant behaviors. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 14, 413-425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, K.H., Burgess, K.B., & Wojslawowicz, J.C. (2000). Aggression and peer relationships in childhood. Paper presented at the colloquium ‘A developmental approach of antisocial behavior’, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shulman, S., Laursen, B., Kalman, Z., & Karpovsky, S. (1997). Adolescent intimacy revisited. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 26, 597-617.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, E.A., & Prinstein, M.J. (2005). Peer Contagion of Depressogenic Attributional Styles Among Adolescents: A Longitudinal Study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 33, 25-37.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tani, F., Rossi, S., & Smorti, M. (2005). Friendship choice criteria in children and adolescents: A study on personality characteristics / I criteri di scelta degli amici nell'infanzia e nell'adolescenza: Un'indagine sulle caratteristiche di personalita. Eta-Evolutiva(1), 33-43.

  • Tolson, J.M., & Urberg, K.A. (1993). Similarity between adolescent best friends. Journal of Adolescent Research, 8, 274-288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Urberg, K.A., Degirmencioglu, S.M., & Tolson, J.M. (1998). Adolescent friendship selection and termination: The role of similarity. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 15, 703-710.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wothke, W. (2000). Longitudinal and multigroup modeling with missing data. In T.D. Little, K.U. Schnabel & J. Baumert (Eds.), Modeling longitudinal and multilevel data: Practical issues, applied approaches, and specific examples. (pp. 219-240). Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. www.bsl.nl/shop/

    Maarten H. W. Selfhout, Susan J. T. Branje & Wim H. J. Meeus

Authors
  1. Maarten H. W. Selfhout
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Susan J. T. Branje
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Wim H. J. Meeus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Research Centre Adolescent Development, Utrecht University

Correspondence to: Maarten H.W. Selfhout, Research Centre Adolescent Development, Utrecht University, PO Box 80140, NL 3508 TC Utrecht, e-mail: M.H.W.Selfhout@fss.uu.nl.

Submitted 9 January 2007; revision accepted 1 April 2007.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Selfhout, M.H.W., Branje, S.J.T. & Meeus, W.H.J. Similarity in adolescent best friendships: the role of gender. NEJP 63, 42–48 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03061061

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03061061

Search

Navigation