The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Friendship 283

and ethnic diversity that is occurring in the

United States means that future research

will need to examine the nature of cross-race

friendship more closely.

TAKE HOME POINTS

■ Children have more cross-race friendships than adults.

■ Barriers to cross-race friendship are both dispositional,

for example prejudice, and structural, for example op-

portunity structure.

Friendships of Lesbians and Gay Men

The nature of friendship as typically defined

by heterosexuals is similar for homosexuals.

However, friendship holds a different place

in the lives of homosexuals. Friendships often

replace or take greater precedence over famil-

ial relationships among homosexuals because

homosexuals have less support from family

than heterosexuals do. Friends are often more

accepting of one’s sexual orientation than fam-

ily (Beals & Peplau, 2006). A study of older gay

men (ages 50 to 87) showed that men maintain

contact with their biological families but call

upon friends for assistance (Shippy, Cantor, &

Brennan, 2004). There is surprisingly little re-

search on friendships among homosexuals.

In terms of the sheer number of friends,

it appears that there is no difference across

heterosexuals, lesbians, gay men, and bisexu-

als (Galupo, 2009). Like heterosexuals, the

friendships of gay men and lesbians match

on an array of demographic variables. That is,

gay men and lesbians are likely to be friends

with people who share the same sex, race,

age, relationship status, and parental status.

Matching on sex may be more difficult for

gay men, however, because friendship among

men in Western culture is based on norms of

from opportunity, some researchers inferred

the preference of Whites, Blacks, Asians, and

Hispanics from the friendships they formed

given the racial composition of their schools

(Currarini, Jackson, & Pin, 2010). That is, in a

sense, they controlled for opportunity struc-

ture. Using this method, they determined

that Black students had the least preference

for cross-race friends, Asians the most, with

Whites and Hispanics falling between the

two groups. In terms of opportunities to meet

persons of other races, Whites had the most

opportunities and Asians and Blacks had the

fewest opportunities.

Which children have cross-race

friends? One study showed that boys have

more cross-race friends than girls (Scott,

2004), and another study showed that girls

have more cross-race friends than boys (Lee

et al., 2007). Social status may be associated

with cross-race friendships. In a study of

Black and White children, those who were

well-liked, popular in school, perceived to

be smart, and leaders had more cross-race

friends (Lease & Blake, 2005). The authors

concluded that the same set of social skills

that leads to friendship also leads to crossing

racial barriers. The findings of that study did

not hold as well for Black boys. In the case

of Black boys, those with cross-race friends

were perceived to be nice and good listeners,

but not leaders or outstanding athletes.

Cross-race friendships are more prob-

lematic between Blacks and Whites than

between two people of other races (Scott,

2004). White people are more likely to have

cross-race friends who are Hispanic or Asian

than Black (Quillian & Campbell, 2003).

Cross-race friendships also are less common

among Whites than among African Ameri-

cans, largely because African Americans are

more likely to be in the minority in their en-

vironment, which means more Whites are

available for friendship. The increasing racial

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