The adverse dyadic friendship (ADF): An exploratory retrospective view of female adolescents

Friendships of adolescent girls play a significant role in providing socio-emotional support and enabling the attainment of developmental tasks. The present exploratory paper focuses on an aspect of close friendships that has yet to be widely examined, which we described as the Adverse Dyadic Friendship (ADF). This is a friendship whose negative elements are perceived from the distance of time as outweighing its positive ones.

To examine the features of ADF, a qualitative study based on retrospective data obtained from 34 young adult females (M_age = 31.14, SD = 5.59) was conducted in Israel. Using a semi-structured online questionnaire, participants were asked to address a specific close same-sex friendship they had during their middle or high school years that has negatively affected them.

The emerging themes (such as negative feelings and various coping strategies) suggest that ADF comprises an intense emotional condition, having implications on the development of individuals' self-perception. The consequences of ADF may be detrimental to adolescent girls' self-worth and friendship skills and extend into their adult life.

Whereas the developmental literature emphasizes the positive aspects of friendship for adolescent girls, this study points out how ADF can also become a developmental challenge for them: on the one hand, ADF comprises a risk factor for their socio-emotional development, and on the other hand, presents an opportunity to learn and introduce changes in their lives. The main contribution of this paper is that ADF can stimulate further research on the complex aspects of friendship between adolescent girls.