Friendship in emerging adulthood - Research Paper Example

The social, economic and cultural changes around the world have given rise to a new developmental phase of growing people which follows adolescencebut precedes full adulthood. According to Dr. Arnett, this new phase known as the ‘Emerging adulthood’, which ranges from 18 years to 29 years, has been created in the last half century primarily because most people have adjourned their marriage and parenthood until their late twenties as they wish to spend this period of their lives in trying out different possibilities of love and work (as cited in Arnett &Tanner 2005, 6-7).

Furthermore, Crosnoe (2000) states that the formation of intimate relationships and friendships is one of the most vital tasks of the emerging adulthood since they form one of the primary resources that enhances the development tasks of the young people (as cited in Tanner, Arnett & Leis 2009, 50). In this paper, we shall discuss how various social, economic and social factors have influenced friendship during emerging adulthood, its importance and various characteristics. The emergence of friendships as the most important part of an emerging adult has been influenced by various social, economic and cultural factors.

It has been found that as emerging adults move out of their parent’s house for higher studies and to establish independence their closeness to parents and siblings tends to decrease to a great extent (Tanner, Arnett & Leis 2009, 49). During this phase, friends act as proxy family offering invaluable advice, support and companionship (Barry & Madsen n.d, 1). In addition, Dr. Arnett states that during emerging adulthood the time spent with family decreases (approximately 28 minutes per day) whereas time spent with friends increases (approx.

103 minutes per day) and therefore, even those living with family start drifting away from their parents and become closer to friends (as cited in Arnett, 2004). Friendships form the peak of emerging adults relationships since they not only provide companionship and confidence, they also form the most vital source of social support (as cited in Tanner, Arnett & Leis 2009, 49-51). Friendships during emerging adulthood are created due to similarity in age, gender, educational orientation, leisure and media preferences, ethnicity as well as participation in risk behavior.

These factors majorly influence the role of friendships in the life of emerging adults. Moreover, the difficulty in obtaining financial independence and competing demands during this period has forced them to postpone their age of marriages and parenthood. During this period, when emerging adults are single and lonely, friends become the central part of their lives because they feel they can share everything with their friends; discuss about close intimate relationships with them since friends can understand them very well; can mirror their thoughts and can also provide invaluable advice when needed (Arnett, 2004).

The development of friendship during emerging adulthood is not only limited to friendship but extends to areas of work and intimate relationships. Moreover, the psychological adjustment and wellbeing of young is majorly affected by friendship during this phase (Tanner, Arnett & Leis 2009, 51). According to studies done by Samter (2003), emerging adults mainly seek for loyalty, warmth in friendship and someone with whom they can share their personal tales with and therefore, confide in friends for this purpose.

Although the number of friends during emerging adulthood is constant similar to adulthood, the time spent with them is not relatively as high as during adulthood. Friendship during emerging adulthood can be between people of same sex as well as opposite sex. According to research, male emerging adults’ favorite pastime is participating in shared activities with their male friends whereas female emerging adults prefer spending most of their time talking. In addition, the conversation of males revolves around sports, work and cars while females generally discuss about themselves, their personal problems and close relationships.

Johnson and Aries have stated that ‘conversation with close friends during this period plays a very significant role in exploring and identifying a sense of self.’ Furthermore, female emerging adults tend to have more intimate relationships as compared to their male counterparts (as cited in Tanner, Arnett & Leis 2009, 50). However, there is major difference between friendship of males and females as compared to friendship between people of same sex, for instance, men’s seek friendship with women with whom they are sexually attracted.

Furthermore, a recent research on emerging adult friendships revealed that people of different adult groups look for different friendship qualities. For example, Asian Americans lay importance to friendly exchange of ideas, African Americans seek acceptance and respect, Latino Americans emphasize on relational support and European Americans give importance to meeting individual needs of each friend (Barry &Madsen n.d , 2-3). It is a fact that we make friends all our lives – from infancy to old age – but they hold greater significance in the lives of emerging adults.

The primary reason behind this is that friends play a very significant role in the identity development of emerging adults. For instance, friendships provide feeling of worth and at the same time gives ample opportunity to have frank talks about anything in the world whether it is about personal relationships, life inspirations, or about moral dilemmas or, religion or any other topic. Secondly, friendship helps in discovering oneself especially during the transition period which every emerging adult faces.

Friends can bring happiness, elevate bad mood and assist in adjustment which is rejuvenating during times of mood swings and anxiety of an emerging adult. Thirdly, the same age factor helps friends to understand emerging adults thinking very well thereby assisting them in evaluating situations critically and carefully, by judging things from someone else’s point of view. Moreover, friendships offer companionship to emerging adults since during this phase they confide more in their friends than families.

However, over the past decade emerging adults have been conversing with friends through cell phones, texting, instant messaging and social networking sites like Facebook. These online communications only prove fruitful when they help in strengthening existing friendships. However, emerging adults are very flexible nowadays since while maintaining existing friendships they are open to forming new friendships. And lastly but most importantly, friendships during emerging adulthood promotes their emotional intimacy skills and interdependence skills which will prove them very helpful during their ongoing as well as future relationships both in work and personal lives (Barry &Madsen n.d, 6-7). It is a fact that the behavior of friendship during emerging adulthood is directly related to their adjustment and well being.

During a survey of emerging adults, they revealed that friends do influence their major life decisions. Moreover, a friend’s good behavior leads to positive outcomes including church attendance, whereas bad behavior of friends result in negative outcomes for instance, those with aggressive friends are more likely to abuse their romantic partners (Barry &Madsen n.d, 7-8). In addition, quality of friendship also influences emerging adults’ personality. According to a research of undergraduates by Bagwell and colleagues (2005), emerging adults whose friendships are characterized with negative qualities of high conflict, power inequities and antagonism display higher degrees of resentment and apprehensions.

However, emerging adults whose friendships display positive qualities for example, high level of social support tend to have greater self esteem and lower levels of depression symptoms. Therefore, we can say that besides behavior, quality of friendships does matter as good quality friends not only enhance ‘positive adjustment’ but simultaneously reduce ‘behavioral problems’ (as cited in Tanner, Arnett & Lies 2009, 50-51). Thus we can conclude that friendships form an influential part of our lives especially during emerging adulthood when they prove to be our best companions.

References Arnett, J.J. (2004). Friends and peers. In Adolescence and emerging adulthood: A cultural approach (Power Point slides). Retrieved from http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/847/./ppt/AEA2e_Ch08.ppt Arnett, J.J., & Tanner, J.L. (Eds.). (2005). A longer road to adulthood. In Emerging Adults in America: Coming of age in the 21st century (PDF document). Retrieved from J.J. Arnett’s online website http://jeffreyarnett.com/articles/EABOOK2004ch1.pdf Barry, C.M., & Madsen, M. D. (n.d). Friends and friendships in emerging adulthood (PDF document).

Retrieved from http://www.changingsea.net/essays/Barry.pdf Tanner, J.L., Arnett, J.J., & Lies, J.A. (2009). Emerging Adulthood: Learning and development during the first Stage of adulthood. In M. C. Smith & N. DeFrates-Densch (Eds.), Handbook of research on adult learning and development (pp. 49-51). New York, NY: Routledge. Brief outline of the paper In this paper we shall the need, importance and characteristics of friendship in emerging adulthood. Emerging adulthood occupy a new phase of individual exploration and uncertainty which begins at the age of 18 years and extends till the late 20’s and friendship during this phase form the peak of all relationships in the life of an emerging adult.

The increased importance of friendship for emerging adults is influenced by various social, economical and cultural factors. Emerging adults tend to become closer to friends as compared to families because of more time spent with friends as well as gender and thought differences with family members. Moreover, people of this age group have postponed their marriage and parenthood in order to pursue competent studies and establish financial independence because of which most of them have to stay away from their families.

The emptiness and loneliness during this phase is fulfilled by friends with whom they can share and discuss anything under the sun. However, there exists gender differences in emerging adulthood for example; male emerging adults prefer shared activities as compared to females who prefer talking. The value of friendship during emerging adulthood is immeasurable as they help in identity development, self realization, offers companionship and most importantly help in developing intimate and interdependency skills.

However, friendship can have both negative and positive effects, therefore, the behavior and quality of friends play a major role in the development of emerging adults.