Personal and social relationships: Friendship in adults

Abstract

Friendship is an important relationship for social, emotional and cognitive development. However, most empirical studies investigate friendship in childhood and adolescence, with little emphasis in adulthood. Current analysis presents a critical review of the literature on friendship among adults, describing the major empirical studies undertaken up to the present. Brazilian studies suggest that friendship among Brazilians might be similar to friendship in other cultures and that international theoretical models may be useful to describe it. Nevertheless, there may be some differences that require further investigation to assess if current models may explain satisfactorily friendship in Brazilian culture.