The current study was designed to examine sex differences in the stability of same-sex friendships. Based on past research, it was hypothesized that boys have more stable friendship nominations than girls. Four hundred fifty-one elementary and high school students from grades three, four, seven and eight completed questionnaires in which they were asked to nominate their closest friends. Friendship nominations were collected three times over a seventh month period, in the fall, winter and spring of the school year. Partial support was obtained for the hypothesis at the high school level: Adolescent boys had more stable friendship nominations than adolescent girls. No sex differences in stability were evident at the elementary level. At all grade levels, fewer friendship nominations were made at the beginning of the year and friendship stability was lowest over the longer time interval from fall to spring. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of the stability of friendships for peer social support.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.35298 |
Date | January 1997 |
Creators | Christakos, Athena. |
Contributors | Benenson, Joyce (advisor) |
Publisher | McGill University |
Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Format | application/pdf |
Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.) |
Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
Relation | alephsysno: 001618701, proquestno: MQ37198, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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