Answer to Question 1
Answer: In adolescence, emotional closeness is more common between girls than boys. Girls frequently get together to just talk, and their interactions contain more self-disclosure and mutually supportive statements. In contrast, boys more often gather for an activityusually sports and competitive games. Boys discussions usually focus on successes in sports and school and involve more competition and conflict. Because of gender-role expectations, girls friendships typically focus on communal concerns, boys on achievement and status. Boys do form close friendship ties, but the quality of their friendships is more variable. When ethnically diverse boys from low-income families were asked to describe their friendships, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanics mentioned closeness, mutual support, and self-disclosure more often than their white counterparts. But as ethnic minority boys transitioned from mid- to late adolescence, many reported a decline in friendship closeness. Their remarks revealed that masculine stereotypesto be tough and unemotionalinterfer ed with these bonds. But perhaps because of cultural valuing of emotional expressiveness between male friends, Hispanic boys were more likely than others to resist conforming to gender stereotypes. Such resistance, by permitting boys to benefit from the supportiveness of intimate friends, is consistently related to better adjustment. Friendship closeness, however, can have costs. When friends focus on deeper thoughts and feelings, they tend to coruminate, or repeatedly mull over problems and negative emotions, with girls doing so more than boys. Corumination, while contributing to high friendship quality, also triggers anxiety and depressionsymptoms more common in girls. And when conflict arises between intimate friends, more potential exists for one party to harm the other through relational aggressionfor example, by divulging sensitive personal information to outsiders. Partly for these reasons, girls closest same-sex friendships tend to be of shorter duration than boys.
Answer to Question 2
Answer: Yes, the Smiths should be concerned about Wesley because he is exhibiting some of the warning signs of suicide. The warning signs include:
Efforts to put personal affairs in ordersmoothing over troubled relationships, giving away treasured possessions
Verbal cuessaying goodbye to family members and friends, making direct or indirect references to suicide (I wont have to worry about these problems much longer; I wish I were dead)
Feelings of sadness, despondency, not caring anymore
Extreme fatigue, lack of energy, boredom
No desire to socialize; withdrawal from friends
Easily frustrated
Volatile mood swingsspells of crying or laughing, angry outbursts
Inability to concentrate, distractibility
Decline in grades, absence from school, discipline problems
Neglect of personal appearance
Sleep changeloss of sleep or excessive sleepiness
Obtaining a weapon or other means of self-harm, such as prescription medications
Parental conflict in adolescence.
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