Affective sharing in African American men and women's same and cross -sex friendships.

African American friendships have received little attention in the psychological literature. This study examined the ways in which African American men and women share their feelings in their same and cross-sex friendships. Participants (N = 306) completed measures of friendship quality, relationship stress, communalism and affective sharing. Results indicated that women shared more feelings than men in both their same and cross-sex friendships. In addition, both men and women reported higher levels of affective sharing in their friendships with men than in their friendships with women. For women, friendship quality was the only significant predictor of affective sharing in both same and cross-sex friendships. The closer the women felt to their friends, the higher their reported levels of affective sharing. For men, friendship quality and partner status were significant predictors of levels of affective sharing in their friendships with men. Single men and men who felt closer to their male friends, reported higher levels of affective sharing in their friendships with men. Age, friendship quality and social communalism were all significant predictors of affective sharing in men's friendships with women. Younger men, men who felt closer to their male friends and men who were lower on measures of social communalism reported higher levels of affective sharing in their friendships with women. In addition, income was found to moderate the relationship between family communalism and affective sharing in men's friendships with other men. Though there was no relationship between family communalism and affective sharing for the lower and middle income men in the study, there was a relationship between family communalism and affective sharing in same-sex friendships for higher income men. For higher income men, as reported levels of family communalism increased, so did levels of affective sharing.PhDBlack studiesPsychologySocial SciencesSocial psychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/131355/2/3057903.pd