Women and Men as Friends: Relationships Across the Life Span in the 21st Century. - book review

Adolescence, Winter, 2001

MONSOUR, Michael

Women and Men as Friends: Relationships Across the Life Span in the 21st Century. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002. 277pp. $59.95 (h), $27.50 (p).

The importance of friendship to individuals is well established and accepted by academic, professional, and lay communities. However, cross-sex friendships -- nonromantic friendships between males and females -- have received little attention by scholars and have been understudied in academic communities. This book fills that gap in its examination of the friendships between women and men of all ages, considering these friendships across the life span and focusing on how these friendships influence the self-concepts of the individuals in them. Monsour provides a literature review of empirical studies and conceptual treatises that focus on cross-sex friendships in early childhood, middle/late childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. He develops a theoretical framework for understanding the cognitive and communicative connections between cross-sex friendships and self-concept development across the life cycle. This volume will be of interest to scholars and students in relationship study, friendship, and ender, and is also appropriate for cognitive psychology, early childhood development, adolescence, and gerontology audiences.