In sixth grade they showed that they like each other in a friendly way.
Cross-sex friendship is clearly demonstrated in the study by Broderick
and Fowler (1961). In the fifth grade (ten and eleven year olds)
45 percent of the boys and 36 percent of the girls claimed to have had
dating experience.
By the seventh grade (twelve and thirteen year olds)
nearly 70 percent of the boys and 53 percent of the girls claimed to
have had at least one date. Some experience with kissing is common at
these ages. There is no comparable data from earlier decades.
When preadolescents were asked whom they liked best of all the
children they knew (four choices were permitted), the choices across
sex lines ranged from 19.7 percent in the fifth grade to 14.6 percent
in the seventh grade.
Percentages of those who chose at least one of
four friends across sex lines give more dramatic evidence of a new look
in boy-girl relations during preadolescence. 51.9 percent of the children
in the fifth grade and 37.7 percent of the children in the seventh
grade chose one or more friends of the opposite sex.
It would seem
from this that although most boys and girls still prefer the companionship
of their own sex, many have bridged this friendship gap between
the sexes.
Cross-sex antagonism during preadolescence has been explained as
partly due to the efforts of individuals to identify themselves more
closely with their own sex and as a result of parents and others instilling
into children the difference between boys' and girls' roles.
These differences are diminishing. In the last generation the sex roles
have become more flexible and now overlap in many areas. The contents
of the two sets of expectations are becoming more similar as women have
achieved many prerogatives previously regarded as exclusively masculine
and men have begun to share many traditionally feminine responsibilities.
As these roles converge and the experiences and values of the
two sexes become more similar, cross-sex hostility becomes less appropriate.
Rejection of the values of the opposite sex loses much of its
purpose when values are similar. Similarly, as the social status of the
two sexes approaches equality, many boys appear to feel less need to
defend a shaky claim to superiority.
Some of the most convincing evidence that times have changed comes
from the Broderick and Fowler study. (1961). Children were asked to
rank the desirability of a companion of the same sex, a companion of
the opposite sex, or no companion at all in three different situa
tions-eating, taking a walk, going to a movie.
They could rank the
cross-sex companion as first, second, or third choice. In the sixth and
seventh grades, the majority of boys and girls reported that when taking
a walk or going to a movie, the companionship of the opposite sex
is to be preferred above either of the alternate arrangements.
Both
sexes were more conservative when choosing an eating companion, but in
the seventh grade the proportion preferring the opposite sex rises to
nearly a half.
In the early stages, dating may primarily be done because the group
expects it. (Crist, 1953, p. 25). A primary group in the form of a gang
or clique of a bisexual nature plays an important function in the preparation
of the individual for dating by helping to minimize anxieties,
fears, frustrations, and shyness.
Individuals who indicate an abrupt
change from the one-sex gang to dating, without first having experiences
in the heterosexual gang, are prone to find their early dating
more awesome and fraught with uncertainty.