The Social Tasks of Friendship: Do Boys and Girls Excel in Different Tasks?

Abstract

Research documents the strengths of girls’ friendships compared to boys’ friendships leading to the inference that boys are not very skilled as friends. In this article, we use a friendship tasks framework to propose that this inference is premature and should be reconciled with evidence that boys are as satisfied as girls with their friendships and that their friendships are as stable over time. We also propose that the inference arises partly because the friendship tasks that girls handle well have been studied extensively, whereas certain friendship tasks boys handle as well as or more successfully than girls are understudied. These tasks include being a fun and enjoyable companion, coping when a friend violates a core expectation of friendship, and sustaining friendships in the broader social context of a friend having other friends. Finally, we suggest that girls and boys who develop skills to respond to a range of friendship tasks will benefit in the long term.

Young Children’s Prosocial Behavior Protects Against Academic Risk in Neighborhoods With Low Socioeconomic Status

“…Children from higher SES neighborhoods were more likely to be White compared to South Asian ( r = −.31, p < .001) and boys compared to girls ( r = −.09, p < .01). Prosocial behavior was more common among girls ( r = .22, p < .001), which is consistent with prior work (Rose & Asher, 2017). Prosocial behavior was not associated with ethnicity (see Eisenberg et al, 2016, p. 624 for a discussion of mixed prior results) or neighborhood SES (consistent with prior research among 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children in Australia; Edwards & Bromfield, 2009).…”

Health-related quality of life in a group of Egyptian children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes: relationship to microvascular complications

“…Bisegger et al 2005 reported gender differences as potential causes of greater vulnerability of teen girls for decreased HRQOL aspects than boys, from the age of 13 years on, besides being diabetic, such as the more drastic puberty for girls; the onset of menstruation, hormonal fluctuations (Toffol et al 2014;Tanna et al 2016), higher levels of perceived stress, and stress-related health complaints in adolescent girls than boys (Östberg et al 2015), with handling problems and difficulties in different ways, namely girls tend to direct their coping patterns inwards, and boys outwards (Wiklund et al 2012); and less body image satisfaction (Griffiths et al 2017) and self-esteem (Gouveia et al 2014), more sensitivity, empathic concern (Van der Graaff et al 2014), and argument due to the social demands placed on girls, that are more staggering and more difficult to achieve (Barcellos et al 2014). The difference in relationships with peers and social relations between girls and boys at the teenage (Rose and Asher 2017) is also that boys often have more privileges and are given more space than girls (Chawla 2004). Besides that, diabetic females trend to have worse metabolic control, higher frequency of microvascular complications, higher incidence of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), dyslipidemia, and weight problems than boys at adolescence (Forsander et al 2017).…”

Initial Development of a Situation‐based Measure of Emerging Adults’ Social Competence in their Same‐gender Friendships

“…Asher and colleagues (MacEvoy & Asher, 2012; Rose & Asher, 2017) highlight the importance of another type of situation, friendship transgressions, which occur when one friend has violated a core expectation of friendship (e.g., by behaving disloyally.) For children, these situations are distressing and may be associated with aggressive responses (MacEvoy & Asher, 2012).…”