Friendships are crucial to people’s lives at all stages. Most people have friends throughout their lives, from childhood to old age. Persons regularly refer to a wide variety of people with whom they maintain relationships as friends in their daily lives, including close friends, family members, spouses, and coworkers. Childhood family disputes present difficulties that can hinder harmony, communication, and trust in the home. Families frequently have arguments or challenging relations. A certain amount of conflict or tension is typical in families. These arguments are less likely to negatively impact children when family members can maintain their composure in the face of conflict and let the little things go. In contrast to family ties, friendships are formed and maintained voluntarily without respect to kinship or formal agreements. The importance of healthy connections is undeniable, helping individuals maintain healthy relationships and learn how to communicate appropriately.
Various problems within or outside the family might lead to difficulties in communication and trust. Major life events or traumas, such as death, divorce, life transitions, or mental/behavioral health, are frequently to blame for family issues. Any mental health condition can severely damage the system, including substance abuse, anxiety, and depression. Second, changes in parental obligations brought on by older children growing up or moving out of the house, changes brought on by changes in a parent’s work, declining health, or financial difficulties can be highly upsetting. A youngster with severe tantrums, repeated meltdowns, a lousy attitude, or rule-breaking conduct will also significantly negatively impact the family unit. Last but not least, the family system is severely harmed when kids see parents fighting often, are aware of the possibility of separation, or both.
There are resolutions to the issues stated above that may be used to strengthen family ties. A healthy dynamic in the home requires being aware of everyone. It is beneficial to consider other people’s feelings for a harmonious household. It is crucial to socialize with others regularly. Spending less time with particular people may help lower negative sensations of aggravation. Healthy relationships can benefit from effective negotiation. While disagreements with people are normal, they can sometimes be quickly resolved through discussion. Stress reduction, as many of the causes of relationship issues in general, results in feelings of stress.
Unlike family ties, friendships are considered “a personal relationship” (Hojjat et al., 2017, p. 9) and are formed and maintained voluntarily without regard to kinship or traditional contracts. Companies are casual, personal, and typically devoid of a hierarchy in opposition to professional relationships, which are frequently based on agreements and regulations with coworkers, bosses at work, or service employees. People generally make friends with those they routinely interact with in adulthood, and it is necessary to realize that “close relationships are important for all emerging adults” (Cashen & Grotevand, 2020, p. 4). Compared to childhood friendships, relationships become more complex and serve new purposes in young and middle adulthood. Friends offer more than just emotional support and validation, they also provide practical assistance. These features—emotional connection and mutual support—are the underpinning psychological characteristics of friendships.
Friendships are frequently intimate, mutually supportive partnerships. People have different levels of connection with each of their friends. How similar friends’ interests, values, and personality qualities are to one another typically impacts how emotionally close they are. According to the similarity attraction theory (Byrne, 1971), individuals look for companions who share their values and outlook on the world. Because one’s self and worldview are validated, interacting with people who think similarly to oneself and share that worldview is enjoyable, also leading “to perceiving the relationship with the other person as pleasant, resulting in feeling close to the other” (Wrzus et al., 2017, p. 3). Friendships can differ among people in addition to having different characteristics, such as emotional connection or mutual support.
Throughout time, maintaining and finding new friendships is perhaps the most challenging part of platonic adulthood relationships, although socialization effects through friendships “seem to be moderately sized during adolescence, then small to negligible from young adulthood onwards” (Wrzus & Neyer, 2017, p. 4). There are several reasons for that and struggles that most people face throughout their lives, such as schedule management, emotional barriers, high standards, and even locations. Different people maintain different social networks, ranging from smaller networks with only family and close friends to more extensive networks with immediate and distant acquaintances, as, according to Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, “individuals begin to engage in a new and special kind of project: themselves” (Syed & McLean, 2017, p. 6). Numerous experiences—both positive and negative—come with age and time. To help safeguard themselves and their feelings, some people tend to construct emotional barriers. Such behavior can be understood as “adaptive and rational if one considers that a key developmental goal of this period of life is to mature into an independent adult in the context of a social world that is unstable and changing” (Blakemore, 2018, p. 3). Setting limits is undoubtedly healthy, but it can also make it more challenging to establish long-lasting bonds in adult friendships. To offer individuals the chance to gain one’s trust, it is crucial to be open with them.
One of the main factors that can and should be used to resolve problems in platonic relationships is boundaries. Boundaries are among the most crucial components of a solid platonic friendship, if not the most critical. Every friendship occasionally encounters difficulties. The best course of action is to be able to manage them at least well if one cannot completely prevent them. Setting limits raises the bar for what one desires in friendships, which is both a benefit and a challenge for building mature companies.
Various pieces of general advice can be given to young adults for maintaining both their personal familial and platonic relationships. First, it is crucial to communicate clearly and to be willing to share your ideas, aspirations, and emotions with your family, as doing so makes it simpler for other family members to follow your lead. By doing this, everyone would feel appreciated and cherished, which strengthens the relationship. Second, looking for outside assistance to aid in the reconciliation process is valid when apologies and reconciliation are likely to fail. Under these circumstances, the best people to turn to are reliable friends, trained counselors, psychologists, and therapists. Thirdly, a connection’s core purpose is to provide a safe refuge where one can get outstanding support. One of the most effective strategies for making amends and fostering trust is to consciously try to support those in one’s social circles.
In conclusion, as people enter young adulthood, they have more friends, and these increases are partly correlated with normative changes. Friends tend to become more emotionally close and supportive if there is no loving partner. The value and caliber of friendships typically decline as young adults enter into committed romantic relationships or become parents. Friendships during adolescence are substantially similar to companies during young and middle adulthood regarding function and underlying psychological aspects. The advice that can be given to young adults is that emotional connection and mutual support are two characteristics that characterize friendships. Notably, companies for the same person might differ in their degree of intimacy and mutual support. Additionally, people generally have different friendship patterns, maintaining fewer or more close friends and acquaintances than others. Some of these variations in friendships are explained by personality traits.
References
Blakemore, J. (2018). Avoiding Social Risk in Adolescence. Current Directions in Psychological Science.
Byrne, D., Baskett, G. D., & Hodges, L. (1971). Behavioral indicators of interpersonal attraction. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1(2), 137–149.
Cashen, K. K., & Grotevant, H. D. (2020). Relational Competence in Emerging Adult Adoptees: Conceptualizing Competence in Close Relationships. Journal of Adult Development, 27(2), 83.
Hojjat, M., Moyer, A., & Halpin, A. M. (Eds.). (2017). The psychology of friendship. Oxford University Press.
Syed, M., & McLean, K. C. (2017). Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development. In Encyclopedia of Intellectual and Developmental Disorders. SAGE Publications.
Wrzus, C., Zimmermann, J., Mund, M. & Neyer, F. (2017). Friendships in Young and Middle Adulthood. ResearchGate, pp. 21-38. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190222024.003.0002
Wrzus, C., & Neyer, F. J. (2017). Co-development of personality and friendships across the lifespan. European Psychologist, 21(4).