For researchers and practitioners interested in social relationships, the question remains as to how large social networks typically are, and how their size and composition change across adulthood. On the basis of predictions of socioemotional selectivity theory and social convoy theory, we conducted a meta-analysis on age-related social network changes and the effects of life events on social ...

This position paper explores the dual nature of friendship relations as an enabler but also as a pitfall for privacy in social networks. The privacy-deteriorating consequences of unilateral friendship disclosure are quantified for an existing medium-sized social network site. A lightweight implementation of hidden friendship using existing standards is proposed and assessed for practicable and ...

Examined models of suicidal ideation severity that include two psychosocial risk factors (i.e., peer and family functioning) and four domains of psychological symptoms (i.e., generalized anxiety, depression, conduct problems, and substance abuse/dependence). Participants were 96 psychiatric inpatients (32 boys, 64 girls), ages 12 to 17, who were hospitalized because of concerns of suicidality. ...

This study examined associations among family type (same-sex vs. opposite-sex parents), adolescent gender, family and relationship variables, and the peer relations of adolescents. Participants included 44 adolescents parented by same-sex female couples and 44 adolescents parented by opposite-sex couples, matched on demographic characteristics and drawn from a national sample. On both self-repo...

PURPOSE To investigate whether social interactions in friendship networks influence the following weight-related behaviors of adolescents: exercising regularly, playing an active sport, hours of TV/Video viewing, sleeping six or fewer hours, eating breakfast on weekdays, frequency of eating at fast food restaurants, eating five servings of fruits/vegetables daily, and consuming calorie-dense sn...

Friendship: Development in a Historical Perspective Friendship is a relationship that has existed across historical times in all types of societies. In developmental psychology, Piaget’s classical distinction between voluntary and symmetrical peerand friendship relationships and the asymmetrical and—due to its biological nature—compulsory parent–child relationship is still valid. However, given...

Increasingly, adolescents are growing up in multiethnic multicultural societies. While intergroup prejudice can threaten the multicultural societal cohesion, intergroup friendships are strong predictors of reduced prejudice. Thus, more research is needed to fully understand the development of intergroup friendships and their relations to less prejudicial attitudes. This study addressed two majo...

Ethnically diverse settings provide opportunities for interethnic friendship but can also increase the preference for same-ethnic friendship. Therefore, same-ethnic friendship preferences, or ethnic homophily, can work at cross-purposes with policy recommendations to diversify ethnic representation in social settings. In order to effectively overcome ethnic segregation, we need to identify thos...