Abstract
Aim: The aim of this study was to identify the primary reasons why male Iranian adolescents enter into other-gender friendships.
Methods: A qualitative study was conducted with a sample of 21 male adolescents recruited in public places in Tehran, Iran. Information about each boy’s experiences with other-gender friends was collected via semi-structured interviews whose contents were analyzed with a conventional qualitative content analysis approach.
Results: Five reasons were identified for engaging in other-gender friendships: (a) for the purpose of entertainment, (b) financial benefits, (c) increased popularity with peers, (d) sensation seeking and (e) sexual experiences.
Conclusion: This study revealed that adolescent males do not follow appropriate goals for communicating with the other-gender. In many cases, these goals could endanger their own health and the health of their other-gender friends. Future researchers must focus on identifying and understanding the factors that influence an adolescent to enter into an other-gender friendship.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the adolescents who bravely participated in this study. The project was supported by the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. This paper is based on the first author’s PhD dissertation.The fourth author’s work on this paper was supported by a grant from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and by a University Research Chair in Early Adolescent Development. We gratefully acknowledge the participation of adolescents as well as school staff, without whose contribution this study could not have been completed.
Conflict of interest statement: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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