Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Predicting Relationship Satisfaction In Same- And Cross-Sex Friendships, Hannah Ford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Friendships between members of the opposite sex become more common and increase in importance across adolescence (e.g., Kuttler, La Greca, & Prinstein, 1999); however, little research has examined these relationships. Of the limited research, most has focused on comparing mean-level differences in friendship features between cross-sex (CS) friendships and same-sex (SS) friendships. Overall, this research has suggested that CS friendships are lower in positive quality compared to SS friendships. These findings offer little insight into why CS friendships continue to be valued and maintained.

The current study used two approaches to better elucidate the value of CS friendships in a …