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The Journal of Genetic Psychology:

Research and Theory on Human
Development
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Friendship and Transition in Early

Adulthood
a
Kenneth A. Tokuno
a
University of Hawaii , USA
Published online: 04 Sep 2012.

To cite this article: Kenneth A. Tokuno (1983) Friendship and Transition in Early Adulthood,
The Journal of Genetic Psychology: Research and Theory on Human Development, 143:2,
207-216, DOI: 10.1080/00221325.1983.10533554

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00221325.1983.10533554

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 The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1983, 143, 207-216.

FRIENDSHIP AND TRANSITION IN EARLY ADULTHOOD*l,2

University of Hawaii

KENNETH A. TOKUNO

SUMMARY

Research on development in early adulthood is meager despite the exis-

tence of theories which focus on this period. There is evidence that friends
may playa role in the resolution of issues facing young adults. This study
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was undertaken to explore the nature of support which friends may render in
early adulthood. Specific issues were selected from the theories of Erikson,
Levinson, and Keniston. These were presented to 81 college women who
indicated how frequently they discuss the issues with friends and with
family. The results showed that young adult females are more likely to
discuss issues of early adulthood with friends than with family, particularly
the issues of personal values, friendship, and relationships with the opposite
sex. Some directions for future research examining the specific mechanisms
of friendship support are discussed.

A. INTRODUCTION

Early adulthood is a period in which a number of decisions must be made

which will continue to have an effect throughout the individual's life. Given
the critical nature of this period, there seems to be little interest in the study
of the various factors which may influence decision-making or the resolution
of issues in early adulthood. This study is an effort to examine the impor-
tance of friends as a support network for the transition experienced by young
adults.
Research has indicated that close friends are an important source of
psychological support in coping with personal problems (3, 15). There is also

* Received in the Editorial Office, Provincetown, Massachusetts, on July 1, 1982. Copy-

right, 1983, by The Journal Press.
1 Data in the present article were presented by the author in an unpublished paper at the
conference of the National Council of Family Relations, Washington, D.C., October, 1982.
2 Requests for reprints should be sent to the author at the address shown at the end of this
article.

207
 208 JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY

evidence that social support networks can be an important buffer against

stress throughout the life cycle (4), specifically in helping individuals cope
with difficult transition periods. There is empirical backing in favor of this
buffering effect for transitions at adolescence (2, 20), onset of parenthood
(13, 14), and old age (12); however, there are no studies which have inves-
tigated the role of support networks for the transition during early adult-
hood. Cobb (4) suggested a need for such research, but to date no data seem
to be available on this question.
A number of studies have examined the general nature of friendship in
early adulthood and the developmental changes which influence friendship
choice in young adults. Verbrugge (9) reported that all studies she reviewed
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show that friendship groups among young adults are very homogeneous
with respect to age, sex, and other social characteristics. Duck's (6) research
extends this homogeneity in friendships to the level of psychological con-
structs. With respect to developmental changes, Weiss and Lowenthal (21)
found a decrease from adolescence to early adulthood in the discrepancy
between perceptions of real and ideal friends, which they attributed to an
increase in selectivity of friends as the individual matures. Goldman,
Cooper, Corsini, and Ahern (8) compared women from six age groups for
differences in expectations of friends. Categories of expectations were devel-
oped and the frequencies with which the categories were named by the
women were compared across ages. Long-standing friendship and family
communalities became important for young adults. The increased impor-
tance of family communality was interpreted to reflect the changes in the 5s'
marital status, so that there was an increased association with other young
married couples once an individual was no longer single. The increased
importance of long-standing friendship was attributed to the fact that younger
age groups are not yet old enough to value long-term relations. Weiss and
Lowenthal and Goldman et al. both explain age changes in the perception
and importance of friendship in terms of developmental issues salient to
young adults. These studies, however, focus on the nature of friendship as
an outcome of developmental change when it is of equal concern to under-
stand the contribution which friends make to the resolution of transitional
issues in early adulthood. As noted, the value of friends in the context of
support systems has been indicated in the literature, so it would seem logical
to conclude that friends may often be sought for support regarding develop-
mentally relevant concerns. Shulman (17) found that single young adults
contacted non kin members of their social networks more frequently and
exchanged more material goods with nonkin than did other age groups or
 KENNETH A. TOKUNO 209

married young adults, who tended to be closer to their families. He argues

that this is the result of concern on the part of such individuals for establish-
ing a career and seeking a mate, concerns more likely to be shared by single
age-mates. Whether such concerns are related to the higher level of contact
and exchange between single young adults is not directly supported by
Shulman's data, however. The present study was designed to explore the
specific nature of the support which friends may give. The rationale in-
volved a selection of issues which theorists have identified as important to
early adulthood and examined the relative importance of friends in the
young adult's resolution of these issues. The issues were chosen on the basis
of the theories of Erikson (7), Levinson (11), and Keniston (10).
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Of Erikson's eight stages, the most critical for young adults are the stages
of Intimacy vs Isolation and the adjacent stages of Identity vs Role Confu-
sion and Generativity vs Stagnation. The young adult finds intimacy
through a deep interpersonal relationship, such as marriage. Intimacy can
only be accomplished once the individual has achieved an identity which
allows the sharing of self necessary for a mutual relationship. Identity,
therefore, is a task which should have been largely resolved by early adult-
hood, although research (9)indicates that a number of young adults continue
to struggle with identity. Similarly, Generativity may be an issue of growing
concern to the young adult. It seems appropriate, then, that all these tasks
be translated into specific issues of early adulthood: understanding self,
relationships with the opposite sex, and becoming a parent, respectively, for
Identity, Intimacy, and Generativity.
Levinson (11) considers the ages from 17 to 22 to be the stage of Early
Adult Transition in which the individual must explore the adult world in
preparation for making decisions about their adult life. From 22 to 28, the
individual is Entering the Adult World, creating what Levinson calls the
first stable "Life Structure." The choices which adults must make at these
stages are in regard to personal relationships, career goals, and other such
components of life. Decisions about school, career, and interpersonal rela-
tionships result from a need to deal with these components and are further
manifestations of the issues of early adulthood.
Keniston (10)describes several transformations occurring in young adults.
He suggests that youth is a new stage of life, a consequence of modern social
structure. The youth must come to terms with differences between choices
made by the self which the young adult may see as in conflict with society's
standards and expectations. Second, Keniston states that a deepening mutu-
ality occurs; this process is akin to Erikson's task of Intimacy. Third, the
 210 JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY

youth achieves a sense of values reflecting the achievement of postconven-

tional moral thought. While Keniston seems to reserve youthhood for a
select portion of those who are chronologically young adults, it is likely that
the resolving of one's sense of values and one's place in society are wide-
spread concerns at this age. Thus, in addition to the issues established from
Erikson and Levinson, it is also important to consider the issues of values,
preferences, and long-term goals.
These three theories tend to concur on the major issues of early adulthood.
The question addressed in this research is the extent to which friends playa
supporting role in helping the young adult deal with these issues. If friend-
ship networks play an important part in facing such issues, then it could be
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of practical value to consider the impact of a lack of this type of support.

This study focused on women because of the findings that women's friend-
ships are richer and more intimate than men's (1, 18). Weiss and Lowenthal
(21) point out that women place more emphasis on reciprocity, mutual trust,
and self-revelation in their friendships. These characteristics would make
women a more likely subgroup of the young adult population in which to
find reliance on friendship in support of the early adult transition. Further,
with the increased options now available to women insofar as marriage and
career are concerned, the issues of early adulthood are as complex for
women as for men.
B. METHOD

1. Subjects
Participants in the study were 81 single women attending class at the
University of Hawaii at Manoa. The classes were at the introductory level
and included students from a wide variety of majors. The University of
Hawaii is a large land grant institution with a thorough mixture of ethnic
groups. The majority of students live at home and commute to the campus.
The mean age of the Ss was 21.1 years with a range of from 18 to 27 years,
covering the span of early adulthood, as noted by Levinson. The Ss repre-
sented all of the major ethnic groups of Hawaii: 58% Japanese, 16.5%
European, 12.3% Chinese, 7.4% Hawaiian/Part Hawaiian, and 6.2%
Filipino. A preliminary ANOVA failed to reveal any significant effect for
ethnicity.
2. Procedure
The instrument used was a friendship survey developed for this study.
Ten issues were chosen on the basis of the theories noted above; these were
 KENNETH A. TOKUNO 211

as follows: career choices, major school decisions, relationships with the

opposite sex, long-term goals in life, relationships with friends, relationships
with family members, personal values, personal likes and dislikes, becoming
a parent, and feelings about yourself. Each S was asked to indicate two
people whom she considered to be her closest friends. She was then asked to
respond to each of the 10 issues in terms of how often she discussed each
issue with each of the two friends. She was also asked to consider two
members of her family and respond in the same manner to the 10 issues with
respect to these family members. It was expected that the Ss would be more
clear about the frequency with which they discussed the issues if they could
focus on a particular individual as opposed to a generalized "friend" or
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"family" other. It was also desirable to obtain at least two friends/family

members, since pilot work indicated that the person whom the S listed as
being "closest" was not necessarily the person with whom the S discussed
these issues the most. The scale used to indicate frequency of discussion was
similar to a Likert scale, with five different levels explicitly defined as
follows: Never; Seldom, only on one or two occasions; Often, up to half the
time spent with that person; Very Frequently, over half the time spent with
that person; and Exclusively, talk to no one else about the issue. For the
purpose of analysis, the friend who was rated highest acr;oss all items was
compared to the family member who was rated highest across all items. Ss
who responded that they discussed the same issue "exclusively" to more than
one other were discarded from the sample.
Test-retest reliabilities were obtained from a small portion of the Ss. It
was apparent that some of the Ss had forgotten at least one of the friends
previously denoted during the one-month time interval, which accounts for
the fact that some of the reliabilities were low, ranging from. 20 for personal
values to .71 for feelings about yourself. The reliabilities for family members
were a better index of reliability over time, since all of the Ss were able to
recall the family members previously indicated. For family members, the
reliabilities ranged from .57 for career choices to .94 for relationships with
the opposite sex. The mean reliability was .76 for family.
C. RESULTS

Interitem correlations were calculated in order to examine the interdepen-

dencies of the 10 issues. Responses to frequency of discussion of issues with
family members were intercorrelated and responses to frequency of discus-
sion with friends were intercorrelated separately. The correlations were
generally higher for family members, although for both sets of data there
 212 JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY

were two distinct clusters, one representing the issues of self, values, likes,
parenting, and relationships with others and the other representing the
issues of careers, goals, and school.
A t test was performed on the mean difference between the total scores
obtained by summing the responses for all 10 issues for friends and for
family members. The t was 2.70, df = 80, P < .05, indicating that the 5s
tended to discuss the issues of early adulthood with their friends more than
their family. Although examination of the mean differences between the
individual issues is problematic because of the dependencies between them,
they were examined because of the interest in the specific pattern of differ-
ences which arise in the issues of early adulthood. It was found that the 5s
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discuss the issue of career choice (t = -1.95, df = 80, P < .10) and school
decisions (t = -2.08, P < .05) more with their families than with friends,
while discussing relationships with the opposite sex (t = 6.53, P < .05),
relationships with friends (t = 3.29, P < .05), personal values (t = 3.43, P <
.05), personal likes and dislikes (t = 2.53, P < .05), becoming a parent (t =
2.13, P < .05), and feelings about self (t = 2.96, P < .05) more with their
friends.
Cohen (5) has provided guidelines for determining the effect size, the
extent to which the effect can be seen in a population. To examine the effect
size, d was calculated for the difference between the total scores, with the
use of the mean standard deviation for the combined family and friends
data. For the difference between total scores, d = .45 which, according to
Cohen, is a medium effect size roughly equivalent to the differences in height
between 14- and 18-year-old girls. For specific issues, a large effect size was
found for the mean difference in responses to relationships with the opposite
sex (d = .93, equivalent to the IQ difference for college freshmen and
Ph.Ds) and medium effect sizes for the mean differences for responses to
relationships with friends and personal values (d = .50 and .51, respec-
tively). These results indicate that the differences in the frequency with
which young adults discuss these issues with friends as opposed to family
members are not simply statistically significant, but are relatively large in
magnitude as well.
The findings for age and sex of friends named supported the homogeneity
findings of Verbrugge (19) in that 83.5% of the friends named were female
and were 21.4 years old. It could be argued that such similarities account for
the tendencies found in discussing these issues more frequently with friends.
It is therefore of interest to note that 44.4% of the 5s listed their mothers as
the most likely family member to discuss issues with, 35.8% sisters, and only
 KENNETH A. TOKUNO 213

18.5% brothers or fathers, indicating that a need to talk with a same sex
person is also true of families and does not account for the differences found.
D. DISCUSSION
The results indicate that women in early adulthood more frequently
discuss the issues of this period with friends than with family, which is
consistent with Shulman's (17) findings. Particularly large differences oc-
curred for the issues of personal values, relationships with friends, and
relationships with the opposite sex. These three issues were found to be
among a group which tended to cluster, indicating the existence of a com-
mon factor. One possible commonality is the tendency for these issues to be
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subject to cohort effects; i.e., the types of information needed in dealing with
the issues are based on contemporary social trends. It is of interest to note,
however, that almost half of the 5s listed siblings as family members with
whom they feel close. This evidence would indicate that the need to talk to
friends is not only a cohort effect, since one would expect that a sibling
would be knowledgeable about current patterns of dating, values, slang, etc.
Another commonality is that all of these issues tend to be of a more
emotional, subjective nature. The support that the young woman may desire
could then be for a person who will listen in an objective, nonjudgmental
manner and still be able to lend emotional support in the context of an
accepting relationship.
The relatively large effect size found for the issues of personal values,
relationships with friends, and relationships with the opposite sex are an
indication of the importance of the support which friends have to offer. The
difference between friends and family in discussing relationships with the
opposite sex is especially large. Young women clearly talk to their friends a
great deal more than family regarding this issue. The magnitude is such that
it is relatively unusual for a young woman to discuss this issue more with a
family member than with a friend. This supports the idea that a young
woman needs to talk to those who will give emotional support, be objective,
and be knowledgeable about current patterns and information, since these
needs are probably most extreme with regard to seeking a mate and the
difference is largest for this issue.
Another interesting question raised by these findings is how this reliance
on friends in early adulthood differs from adolescents' dependency on peers.
Keniston (10) carefully points out the distinctions which need to be made
between these developmental stages. Extending his distinctions, it is likely
that the young adult is seeking advice and support for decisions that will be
 214 JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY

more independent about directions in life, whereas the adolescent is more

dependent and conforming to group norms, seeking advice and support in
order to fit into the group structure and to determine standards of social
behavior. More research is needed to explore this possibility.
The 5s reported discussing school decisions more with family than with
friends. There was also a slight trend in this direction with respect to the
issue of career choices. These issues also clustered together in the intercorre-
lation matrix. It would seem that one commonality between these issues
which distinguishes them from the others is that they are more objective and
less emotionally laden for the young adult, who therefore feels more comfort-
able in talking about them to her family. In addition, parents, at least,
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would be perceived as having more experience and foresight in these areas.

These findings only reveal the relative importance of friendships vis-a-vis
family members in sharing concerns about the transition from adolescence to
adulthood. More thorough techniques are needed to probe the deeper ques-
tions concerning the specific manner in which support may influence life
choices and the importance of such support for the young adult. In-depth
interviews would provide information as to whether friends simply serve as
sounding boards or provide specific direction or strategies for resolving these
issues. Using semistructured interviews, Ryder, Kafka, and Olson (16), for
example, found that friends play an instrumental role in joining and separat-
ing couples in the process of courtship. Open discussion was only one of
several mechanisms, illustrating that the results reported here touch upon
only one aspect of the process by which friends may affect young adults in
their future directions.
There is limited generalizability in this study due to the ethnic composi-
tion of the sample, although analysis failed to reveal any ethnic differences.
Other important variables that were not included which may have a bearing
on the use of friendship support groups are the social class and marital status
of the Ss, as well as sex. It is likely that married individuals are more
dependent upon spouses and for such individuals the issue of intimacy takes
on a totally different character, as might other issues. Members of lower
social classes may be more or less dependent on family. Young adult men
may be less reliant on friends or family than are young adult women, since
men are expected to be more independent and research has shown them to
be generally less confiding than women (1, 18). This study should be re-
garded as exploratory. The results are reported in the hope that systematic
replication will be stimulated in order to answer some of the questions raised
above. If it is true that friends are an essential, or at least a major, source of
 KENNETH A. TOKUNO 215

support when young adults are faced with critical choices regarding their
futures, then it is important that we examine the specific processes by which
this support occurs. It is possible that individuals who lack this support, or
who fail to make full use of it, encounter difficulties and/or fail to make
appropriate choices for themselves. To the extent that research into this
question can prevent indecision, error, or deferral, to that extent it is a
necessary effort.

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