Cross-sex friendship and happiness

Abstract

Established research has shown that friendship is an important correlate of happiness. Yet, these studies did not directly examine the relationship between cross-sex friendship and happiness. Thus, the studies reported in this chapter aimed to investigate the association of cross-sex friendship with happiness. The first study revealed that cross-sex friendship quality and happiness are positively correlated, regardless of how happiness was assessed (e.g., affective, global). The second study showed that cross-sex friendship-happiness association is similar among emerging adults in Turkey and the U.S. The third study provided additional support for a positive relationship between cross-sex friendship quality and happiness, as it revealed that cross-sex friendship quality predicted unique variance in happiness above and beyond the role of personality for both U.S. and Turkish samples. Collectively, the studies have shown that cross-sex friendship quality is a reliable correlate of happiness. Findings were evaluated in light of theory and directions for future research were provided.