How Girls and Boys Expect Disclosure About Problems Will Make Them Feel: Implications for Friendships

• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01734.x
• Publication Date: 2012-02-24T16:31:36Z
• Authors: Amanda J. Rose; Rebecca A. Schwar...; Rhiannon L. Smith; Steven R. Asher; Lance P. Swenson; Wendy Carlson; Erika M. Waller
• Keywords: Male; Analysis of Variance; Adolescent; Psychometrics; 4. Education; Emotions; 05 social sciences; Friends; Disclosure; Peer Group; Sex Factors; Attitude; Surveys and Questionnaires; Humans; Female; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; 10. No inequality; Child; Stress, Psychological

Although girls disclose to friends about problems more than boys, little is known about processes underlying this sex difference. Four studies (Ns = 526, 567, 769, 154) tested whether middle childhood to mid‐adolescent girls and boys (ranging from 8 to 17 years old) differ in how they expect that talking about problems would make them feel. Girls endorsed positive expectations (e.g., expecting to feel cared for, understood) more strongly than boys. Despite common perceptions, boys did not endorse negative expectations such as feeling embarrassed or worried about being made fun of more than girls. Instead, boys were more likely than girls to expect to feel “weird” and like they were wasting time. Sex differences in outcome expectations did help to account for girls’ greater disclosure to friends.