Cross-sex friendship in children: Gender patterns and cultural perspectives

An understanding of cross-sex friendship patterns can highlight male-female interactions in ways not revealed through investigations of same-sex friendships. Therefore, children's cross-sex friendship choices in two cultures were studied to explore culture- and gender-related biases in the socialization of sex roles. Fifth graders in America and Sweden responded to two sociometric questions about help with schoolwork and secret-sharing. Differences across gender and culture lines provided support for the existence of biases in gender-role training that may differ among cultures. Questions were raised regarding the role of social agents in the development of social cognitions, the amenability to change of traditional sex-typed behaviors, and the differences among cultures that might influence social-cognitive development. The fact that some children make cross-sex choices suggests that socialization practices do not influence all children uniformly. These differences bear further study.