Friendship as a Voluntary Relationship: Evidence from National Surveys

Abstract

This paper focuses on voluntary friendships. Drawing from Fischer's (1975) subcultural theory of urbanism, it is hypothesized that voluntary interaction with friends will be characteristic of individuals who live in urban areas. Friendship is also expected to be characteristic of high-SES, young, unmarried and childless individuals. An underlying rationale is that friendship occurs when individuals are relatively free from obligatory ties, duties and other constraints on their free choices. NORC data from 1974-83 are used to test the hypotheses. In the analysis, a distinction is made between involvement with friends outside the neighbourhood and social involvement with neighbours. The findings indicate that income, age, marital status and number of children significantly influence voluntary friendships. In addition, interaction analyses (product term) suggest that combinations of the independent variables produce the greatest effect on friendship.

The cultural grounding of personal relationship: Friendship in North American and West African worlds

“…All of these features imply independent constructions of an unconstrained self that is free to create such relationships (Carrier, 1999). Accordingly, we would expect friendship to approach this form more closely in worlds where atomistic-independent constructions of reality are prominent: not only North American settings, but also male-dominated, urban, highly educated, or middle-class worlds (Allan, 1977;Argyle, 1994;Cross & Madson, 1997;Markus, Curhan, Ryff, & Palmersheim, 2003;Paine, 1969;Palisi & Ransford, 1987).…”

Heterosexism and the Study of Women's Romantic and Friend Relationships

“…Indeed, friendship tends to be less formally scripted than romantic relationships and is regarded as one of the least institutionalized of all relationships (Allan, 1993). As a "voluntary" relationship, it is not coerced or even facilitated by social roles or rules (Palisi & Ransford, 1987). At minimum, friends are expected to fulfill six responsibilities: to stand up for their friend in the friend's absence, share news of success, show emotional support, trust and confide in each other, volunteer help in time of need, and strive to make the friend happy when in each other's company (Argyle & Henderson, 1984).…”

A Developmental Guide to the Organisation of Close Relationships

“…Friendships are voluntary (Palsi & Ransford, 1987) in the sense that the setting and the relationship are an open-eld; interconnections owe no allegiance to kin or environm ent, leaving participants free to disconnect at any time. Friends initially focus on the distribution of personal bene ts because they lack commitment to one another, but dyadic concerns grow as commitment to the relationship increases.…”