Assessing the Associations Between Friendship Length, Friendship Quality, and Comfort Level Discussing Sexual Health

Authors

Payton Charles, SUNY Cortland

Files

Faculty Mentor

Katherine Bonafide, Ph.D., Kaitlin Flannery, Ph.D.

Abstract

Sexual health communication has been linked to sexual health practices. Such research on communication typically studies parent-child relationships. Therefore, this study sought to test whether friendship length and friendship quality are correlated with comfort level talking about sex among same-gender and cross-gender friends. We surveyed 187 young-adults (Mage=20.10, SD=1.34; 49.2% female; 75% White). Results indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between quality of friendship and comfort level (r(184)=.39, p<.001). However, there wasn’t a significant relationship between length of friendship and comfort level (r(184)=.101, p=.169). When looking at the results in cross-gender friends, women showed a significant positive correlation between friendship quality and comfort level (r(19)=.512, p=.018), while men did not (r(19)=.150, p=.528). These results indicate that there may be a difference in comfort when discussing sexual health topics across genders.

Publication Date

5-2020

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Cross-gender friendships, sexual health communication

Disciplines

Psychology