The friend that got away: An exploration on female adolescents’ friendship dissolution

Abstract

Friendship is said to be one of the most indispensable requirements of life for it gives us empowerment in many forms. Nonetheless, no matter how beneficial it is for us, it is just undeniably realistic that it has its own ending point considering many factors. And so, friendship was explored in terms of its formation and its maintenance and how they fueled its unfortunate dissolution. There was a total of 11 informants who responded through in-depth interview. Results showed that deep connections of friendship were formed through commonalities, shared experiences, intimacy, early year foundation, and open communication. Friendship maintenance include trust and intimacy which can be developed through the following strategies namely, self – disclosure, honesty, tolerance, constant communication, frequent bonding, and unconditional support. Other findings on why the relationship terminated were due to betrayal, third party, and personal conflict which accordingly resulted into experiencing of unpleasant emotions.