| Summary: | To date, cross-gender friendships in childhood and adolescence have been virtually
ignored in the peer relationships literature. The purpose of the present investigation
was to chart the territory of cross-gender friendship by examining the domains of
friendship conceptions and the selection of friends. Accordingly, 176 students (91 girls,
85 boys) in grades 3, 6, 9, and 12 participated in individual sessions and were asked to
describe their beliefs about, and expectations for, both same- and cross-gender
friendship. In addition, students participated in a hypothetical decision-making task
using a series of information boards on which they were asked to search for, and
select, a same- and cross-gender friend. Findings revealed that beliefs and
expectations for both same- and cross-gender friendships were observed to follow a
common developmental sequence with little evidence that cross-gender friendships lag
behind. Although the pattern of gender differences in conceptions of cross-gender
friendship was consistent with previous research, the results of this study suggest that
for several features of friendship, participants made distinctions on the basis of what is
expected in friendships involving girls versus boys. The differential emphasis placed
on various expectations in friendship provides support for the notion that same- and
cross-gender friendships may represent different types of personal relationships. As
compared to conceptions of friendship, observations in the friendship selection task
revealed that students engaged in similar predecisional searching regardless of the
gender of the target friend. Findings suggest that the process of same- and crossgender
friendship selection was somewhat different at different grade levels but did not
vary markedly for boys and girls. Indeed, boys and girls at all ages were observed to
select same- and cross-gender friends who were highly similar to themselves. The
present discussion concludes with a description of the cross-gender friendship
experiences of children and adolescents in this sample including consideration of the
potential challenges and benefits associated with having a friend of the other gender. === Education, Faculty of === Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of === Graduate
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