Understanding Friendship Patterns among the Youth:An Empirical Study

This study examined the patterns of friendship across nine interpersonal factors as well as the patterns of friendship between two different age groups. The methodology involved the usage of an open-ended interview sheet, administered on a sample of 100 subjects faUmg between the age group of 18-25 years. Further, the group was divided into 18-21 years (54 subjects) and22-25 years (46 subjects). A self-report measure containing 27 items, was used as a tool for the study. A total of 9 factors: Trust, Availability, Conflict, Jealousy, Self Disclosure, Openness to Feedback, Perceptiveness, Participation, and Similarity were taken into consideration. Percentage distribution and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) were used for statistical analysis. Statistical analysis indicated a maximum shared common understanding among the sample population, for factors like Availability, Openness to Feedback, Conflict, and Participation, with a percentage distribution of 79%, 78%, 73% and 71.33% respectively. Factors like Availability, Openness to Feedback, Conflict, Participation, Perceptiveness andTrust, had abetter shared a common understanding in the age group of 18-21 years compared to 22-25 years. It was interesting to observe, that factors like Jealousy, Self Disclosure, and Similarity was not of much significance to either group.