ETHNICITY AND EMOTIONAL SUPPORT IN SAME-SEX FRIENDSHIP - A COMPARISONOF ASIAN-AMERICANS, AFRICAN-AMERICANS, AND EURO-AMERICANS

Emotional support is a central feature around which white, middle-clas s adults organize their same-sex friendships. The purpose of this stud y was to examine whether emotional support is accorded the same signif icance in the friendships of Asian-and African-Americans. Participants included 199 students (60 Euro-American men and women, 80 Asian-Ameri can men and women, and 59 African-American men and women) attending ei ther a state or private university in California. Each participant com pleted three different questionnaires designed to assess perceptions o f (a) the importance of comforting skill in same-sex: friendship; (b) the significance of emotion-focused versus problem-focused goals in si tuations requiring emotional support: and (c) the sensitivity and effe ctiveness of various comforting strategies. Several significant differ ences due to ethnicity were found in participants' perceptions of emot ional support and its attendant behaviors. These and related findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the conduct of same-s ex friendship among individuals from different ethnic backgrounds.