Back to Search
Start Over
Communication and Cross-Sex Friendships Across the Life Cycle: A Review of the Literature
- Source :
- Annals of the International Communication Association. 20:375-414
- Publication Year :
- 1997
- Publisher :
- Informa UK Limited, 1997.
-
Abstract
- This chapter reviews the literature on cross-sex friendships and communication across the life cycle. It begins by establishing the importance and historical relevance of cross-sex friendships and the relative neglect of these relationships by the scholarly community. It then offers a delineation of conceptual and methodological issues involved in the study of male-female friendships. Next, with a focus on communication, studies are reviewed on cross-sex friendships in early childhood, middle and late childhood, adolescence, young and middle adulthood, and old age. Finally, the author makes some summarizing observations concerning the lack of theory in cross-sex friendship studies, the adoption of a “heterosexist” worldview in cross-sex friendship investigations, and the relative neglect of communication topics pertinent to those friendships. The central observation in the chapter is that cross-sex friendships have a protean quality that makes them significantly different in each stage of the life cycle, ...
- Subjects :
- Communication
media_common.quotation_subject
05 social sciences
050801 communication & media studies
Late childhood
humanities
Neglect
Developmental psychology
Friendship
0508 media and communications
Middle adulthood
0502 economics and business
Relevance (law)
Early childhood
Psychology
Social psychology
050203 business & management
media_common
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 23808977 and 23808985
- Volume :
- 20
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Annals of the International Communication Association
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........30ad49863dea988947f73b3b9d826d60