FRIENDSHIP AND NEED FULFILLMENT DURING 3 PHASES OF YOUNG ADULTHOOD

Theory and knowledge about adult friendship have not been integrated w ithin a broader life-span perspective, thus leaving us with a disjoint ed understanding of adult friendship, marriage and parent-child relati onships. The present study redresses this situation by examining devel opmental differences in young adult friendship within the broader cont ext of their network of significant family relationships. Robert Weiss ' (1974) conceptualization of social provisions was used as the basis for comparing the roles that close friends play in need fulfillment to the roles played by other network members. Predominantly White middle -class male and female adults (ages 20 to 35 years) were recruited fro m three family-role-defined phases of young adulthood (N = 180): (i) t he single phase (i.e. romantically uncommitted), (ii) the married-with out-children phase, and (iii) the parenthood phase (i.e. married with young children). Participants rated the extent to which they received each of nine social provisions through their relationships with their mother, father, closest friend, spouse or casual dating partner, and t heir oldest child (if applicable). In general, the findings revealed t hat reliance on friends to satisfy social needs is greatest during the single phase and is reduced significantly during the marital and pare nthood phases. Women report gaining higher levels of certain social pr ovisions (especially emotional support) from friends than men across a ll three phases. The importance of friends relative to other network m embers as suppliers of social provisions differed substantially betwee n the three phases; these differences appeared to be integrally tied t o differences in family role involvement. Neither Weiss' relationships -specificity model nor Canter's (1979) hierarchical-compensatory model adequately described the organization of need-fulfilling networks acr oss all three phases.