The relationship between friendship quality, masculinity ideology and happiness in men's friendship
Friendships are voluntary, reciprocal relationships that consist of a number of provisions such as intimacy, companionship and help. These provisions or dimensions help to form, maintain and strengthen these friendships. This study has examined the claim that certain types of friendship are related to happiness, and that men's and women's friendships differ. It did so by comparing men and women in terms of the three aforementioned friendship dimensions as well as happiness. This study further investigated whether or not masculinity ideology functioned as a mediator between the dimensions of friendship and happiness. Male (n=140) and female (n=194) students from the University of Cape Town (UCT) completed the Friendship Qualities Questionnaire, which measured their scores on companionship, intimacy, help, positive affect, negative affect, satisfaction with life, and masculinity ideology. Overall happiness scores were calculated using each participant's standardised scores on measures of positive affect, negative affect and satisfaction with life. T-tests and Mann-Whitney U tests revealed that women scored significantly higher than men on measures of intimacy, help and companionship. Women also scored significantly higher than men on the satisfaction with life measure. Despite this, men and women were not significantly different in terms of their overall happiness scores. Path analysis revealed that masculinity ideology did not function as a mediator between friendship dimensions and happiness for men. However certain path coefficients were found to be significant. For men, the path between intimacy and masculinity ideology was significant as was the path between help and happiness. Additional analyses on women revealed that the paths between companionship and happiness as well as help and happiness were significant. These findings suggest that masculinity ideology does affect the expression of intimacy between men in their friendships. The findings further suggest that help is one of the most important dimensions in friendships as it is significantly related to happiness for both genders.
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