title: [The psychological meaning of the female friend among Mexican adolescents: a gender comparison].
abstract: This study constitutes a continuation of a series of approximation to the knowledge of an adolescent stage. The purpose of this paper is to explore the way in that the females and males adolescents conceptualize a "female friend". With this in mind, we analyzed the information with the semantic network technique in 160 adolescents: 80 females and 80 males divided in two groups of analysis: 8th and 12th school years in private schools from Mexico City. The results permit to observe some differences in their conceptualizations by gender and educative level; but also we observed similarities in the way of to conceptualize a "female friend". Perhaps these findings derived from a cultural tradition that influence the social interactions and by an evolutive stage: the adolescence, when the establishment of the psychosocial identity is an important need and demand.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012723:Sex; D012737:Sex Factors; D012944:Social Support
vernacular_title: El significado psicológico del concepto "amiga" en adolescentes mexicanos: una comparación por género.