Sex Roles, Friendships, and Identity Formation

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of intimate friendship\ud as a mediator in the relationship between sex role and identity formation in adolescence.\ud Participants were 165 male and 132 female high school students ranging in age from 14 to 19 years old. Participants completed three questionnaires assessing sex role (Personnel\ud Attributes Questionnaire), friendship (Measure of Adolescent Friendship Characteristics), and identity formation (Revised Extended Version of the Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status). Correlations, multiple and hierarchical regression analyses were\ud performed. Results indicated that expressive friendships did significantly mediate the\ud relationship between femininity and interpersonal and overall identity. Additionally,\ud significant sex differences were found, with the mediational model holding more strongly for girls than for boys. Future research is necessary to discover whether sex or sex role is\ud the crucial predictor in the mediational model