FRIENDS, LOVERS AND SPOUSES - INTIMACY IN YOUNG-ADULTS

Intimacy in young heterosexual adults was studied as a function of the ir familial roles. The 168 males and females employed represented four familial role groups: late adolescents, single adults, married people and parents. Participants were administered two forms of an Intimacy Scale (Sharabany, 1994) in which they described their desired and thei r obtained intimacy with a same-sex and an opposite-sex best friend. R esults indicated that (a) intimacy of adults with opposite-sex partner was higher than intimacy with same-sex friend. (b) Although no direct effect of familial role on intimacy was found, the married and parent groups displayed greater intimacy towards their spouses than late ado lescents and single adults towards their opposite-sex partners. (c) Wo men who were late adolescents and women who were married scored signif icantly higher than men in intimacy. However, single women expressed s ignificantly lower intimacy than single men. (d) Higher intimacy with opposite-sex partner was associated with a concurrent lower same-sex i ntimacy. (e) Satisfaction with other-sex partner was higher in the mar ried group than in the other groups.