Friendships and Adaptation in the Life Course - Psychology ...

366 HARTUP AND STEVENS
term longitudinal studies across major developmental transitions
(e.g., adolescence, midlife, and retirement) would be extremely
valuable.
Conclusion
The weight of the evidence suggests that friendships are de-
velopmentally significant throughout the life course. First,
friends are cognitive and affective resources from childhood
through old age, fostering self-esteem and a sense of well-being.
Second, friends socialize one another, especially with respect to
age-related tasks that must be mastered for individuals to achieve
good outcomes. Third, supportive and intimate relationships be-
tween socially skilled individuals seem to be developmental
advantages, whereas conflict-ridden relationships between trou-
bled individuals seem to be disadvantages.
The database on friendship and adaptation abounds with dis-
continuities. Adults, for example, spend less time with their
friends than children do and spend their time differently. Sup-
portiveness between friends is correlated with good outcome,
but this result depends on who one's friends are and what these
relationships are like. Consistency emerges, however, when one
examines friendships within a multidimensional framework.
First, one must distinguish between deep and surface struc-
tures when thinking about these relationships. Based on empiri-
cal evidence, reciprocity is the deep structure, and certain out-
comes (e.g., the individual's sense of well-being) derive from
these reciprocities throughout the life course. Surface structures
vary based on how old the individuals are: Four-year-olds, for
example, engage in rough-and-tumble play; 14-year-olds social-
ize in shopping malls and over the telephone; 34-year-olds relate
to one another by discussing jobs, parenting, and golf scores;
74-year-olds reminisce and discuss their health and what the
world is coming to. Surface structure changes, however, are
precisely why these relationships are adaptational advantages.
Friendship reciprocities are cast and recast so that they can
support the individuals involved in developmentally relevant
ways.
Second, one must recognize that, although having friends
may be a developmental advantage, all friendships are not alike.
People differ in the company they keep, that is, in who their
friends are. Both children and adults also differ in that some
friendships are close, stable, and symmetrical, while others are
not. Only when three dimensions--having friends, identity of
one's friends, and quality of the friendship--are taken into ac-
count does the literature yield a coherent account of friendship
and adaptation in the life course.
Significant gaps exist in the database. Some issues are unre-
solved because too little is known about how friendships differ
from one another. Some conclusions are shaky because cross-
sectional data have not been supplemented with longitudinal
studies. Other conclusions are tenuous because the database
comes from children and adolescents but too little is known
about the relevant issue among adults. Still other studies are
inconclusive because too little is known about the complex man-
ner in which relationships and their development interact with
the development of the individual.
Among the many issues that need attention are these three.
First, more attention must be given to the manner in which
friendships differ from one another. New assessments of close-
ness, supportiveness, and hostility in these relationships, espe-
cially among children and adolescents, are good beginnings.
Many other qualitative dimensions, however, need examination.
Friends vary based on how many and which attributes they
share: Are friends who are similar in many ways different from
those who are similar in only one or two ways? What are the
long-term implications of a person sharing one attribute with a
friend versus sharing many attributes? One can guess that, when
many attributes are shared, interpersonal attraction can be great
(Kupersmidt et al., 1995), but does this mean that these friends
have certain developmental advantages? Are certain similarities
more significant than others? Do homophilies with depression
place individuals at the same degree of risk as would those with
antisocial behavior? Finally, when one considers that friendships
differ from one another in myriad ways, which qualitative attri-
butes carry the greatest developmental significance and when?
Second, what normative continuities and discontinuities can
be traced across the life course? What brings about normative
change in friendship interactions? Existing normative studies
center too much on having friends and the most superficial facts
about them. Normative trends over the life course can be de-
duced only from diverse studies that vary greatly in methodology
and quality. For example, observational studies tell many things
about the behavioral manifestations of children's friendships,
but virtually nothing is known about these manifestations among
middle-aged or older friends. Cross-sectional normative studies
including children and adults would improve this state of affairs;
but longitudinal studies are also needed. Whatever can be
learned about the distinctiveness of friendship interaction among
adults and the changes that occur across major life transitions
in adulthood (e.g., widowhood) would be extremely valuable.
Third, friendships and their developmental significance need
to be better understood. Developmental psychologists are study-
ing behavioral outcomes in relation to temperament and early
experience, social skills and sociometric status, family relation-
ships, and the social context (most especially situations that
involve stress and other challenges). Multiple pathways that
involve combinations of these conditions are being discovered
that lead to good outcomes, meanwhile other pathways are being
discovered that lead to poorer ones (Hartup & Van Lieshout,
1995). Friendship experiences may contribute a significant vari-
ance within some pathways but not others--a contingency that
has somehow been ignored.
Overall, our assessment shows documentation on friendships
and their developmental significance to be sufficiently strong
for the argument that friendships should not be ignored in devel-
opmental analysis--neither in childhood nor throughout the life
course. Causal models are weak, however, and need to be im-
proved. Consideration of both deep and surface structures as
well as multidimensional assessment in which having friends,
the identity of one's friends, and quality of the friendship are
essential to this improvement.
References
Adams, R. G. (1987). Patterns of network change: A longitudinal study
of friendships of elderly women. Gerontologist, 27, 222-227.
Adams, R. G., & Blieszner, R. (1995). Midlife friendship patterns. In
N. Vanzetti & S. Duck (Eds.), A lifetime of relationships (pp. 336-
363). San Francisco: Brooks/Cole.