title: A Survival Analysis of Adolescent Friendships: The Downside of Dissimilarity.
abstract: The present study examined whether adolescent friendships dissolve because of characteristics of friends, differences between friends, or both. Participants were 410 adolescents (201 boys, 209 girls; mean age = 13.20 years) who reported a total of 573 reciprocated friendships that originated in the seventh grade. We conducted discrete-time survival analyses, in which peer nominations and teacher ratings collected in Grade 7 predicted the occurrence and timing of friendship dissolution across Grades 8 to 12. Grade 7 individual characteristics were unrelated to friendship stability, but Grade 7 differences in sex, peer acceptance, physical aggression, and school competence predicted subsequent friendship dissolution. The findings suggest that compatibility is a function of similarity between friends rather than the presence or absence of a particular trait.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University.
authors.forename: Amy C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Hartl
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University laursen@fau.edu.
authors.forename: Brett
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Laursen
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University.
authors.forename: Antonius H N
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Cillessen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D000374:Aggression; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012574:Schools; D016019:Survival Analysis
keywords: aggression; friends; peer acceptance; relationship dissolution; survival analysis