This study compares same-sex friendships, cross-sex friendships and romantic relationships in young adulthood in terms of the negative effects of various conflict issues, the different conflict management strategies and relationship maintenance strategies employed in these relationships, as well as the perceived rewards and costs, the integration of the networks, and perceived overall quality. The main purpose is to investigate cross-sex friendships and discern its similarities to and differences from romantic relationships and same-sex friendships, as well as the gender differences that emerge. Data is collected by means of questionnaires, from a sample of 298 Middle East Technical University Students. Cross-sex friendships were rated as the poorest relationship in terms of quality, rewards/costs, or the frequency of maintenance behaviors and conflict occurred at very low levels in these friendships. Women employed more relationship maintenance strategies in their same- and cross-sex friendships compared to men. In addition, men preferred the dominating and women the accommodating strategies of conflict management in their same-sex friendships. It was concluded that same-sex friendships remain to be the accepted and approved form of friendship among this sample of Turkish young adults and cross-sex friendships were distant and inferior to the other two relationships. Finally, there were some differences across these relationships as to what predicted relational quality, yet in general the rewards and maintenance strategies predicted quality better than costs and conflict behaviors

No / Demilitarization of conflict and society is crucial to building sustainable peace in countries emerging from the scourge of civil war. As longstanding conflicts come to an end, processes which facilitate the potentially volatile transition from formal peace to social peace are critically important. At the heart of the exercise is the necessity of transforming the culture and the instruments of war - demilitarization - including disarming, demobilizing and reintegrating (DDR) former combatants into society. This volume represents the first in-depth and comprehensive discussion of reintegration of former combatants in war to peace transitions. In addition to a systematic reflection and review of existing literature on DDR, the authors devised and applied a field research methodology to studying the reintegration of former combatants in Angola with potentially significant implications on the design and implementation of DDR programmes. The volume is written for academics, students and practitioners focusing on war to peace transitions and post-conflict issues.