Can you remember who your best friend was in seventh grade? If you are having difficulty, it could be because relationships at that age are often short-lived. Half don't last a year. The friendships that do last can be predicted based on demographic and behavioral similarities, according to new research from psychologist Brett Laursen of Florida Atlantic University.
你還記得七年級(jí)時(shí)最好的朋友是誰(shuí)嗎？如果你想不起來(lái)，那可能是因?yàn)槟莻€(gè)年紀(jì)的友誼通常都難以延續(xù)。半數(shù)的友誼都不會(huì)超過(guò)一年。佛羅里達(dá)大西洋大學(xué)的心理學(xué)家布雷特·勞爾森發(fā)布的一項(xiàng)新研究顯示，長(zhǎng)久維系的友誼可以通過(guò)人口學(xué)統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)和行為相似性這兩方面預(yù)知。

“There is a lot of change during middle school, and that change makes it hard to maintain friendships,” Laursen says. As kids move from one academic track to another, join or leave sports teams, or take up new extracurricular hobbies, the opportunities to interact with friends wax and wane. Middle school is also a time when growing personal autonomy first allows children the chance to pick their friends and invest—or not—in those relationships.
勞爾森稱：“中學(xué)時(shí)期會(huì)有很多變化，而那些變化會(huì)使得人們難以維持一段友誼”。當(dāng)孩子們從一個(gè)學(xué)習(xí)階段步入另一個(gè)學(xué)習(xí)階段，參加或離開(kāi)體育隊(duì)，或是有了新的課外的興趣愛(ài)好，那么，和朋友在一起互動(dòng)的機(jī)會(huì)就會(huì)此消彼長(zhǎng)。中學(xué)也是孩子們自主能力逐漸增強(qiáng)的時(shí)期，孩子們有機(jī)會(huì)自己選擇朋友，或是決定是否要在這些關(guān)系上進(jìn)行“投資”。

Laursen tracked 573 seventh-grade two-person friendships until they ended or until 12th grade. A few important behavioral traits emerged as predictors of friendships that lasted more than a year: popularity, aggression and academic success. The more similar two friends were in these traits, the longer a relationship lasted.
勞爾森跟蹤了573對(duì)七年級(jí)的友誼關(guān)系，到第十二個(gè)學(xué)年結(jié)束或是持續(xù)到第十二個(gè)學(xué)年。其發(fā)現(xiàn)了一些預(yù)示著友誼關(guān)系持續(xù)一年以上的重要的行為特征：知名度、上進(jìn)心、和學(xué)業(yè)成績(jī)。兩個(gè)朋友在這些特征上越相似，友誼關(guān)系將維持地越長(zhǎng)久。

Friends of the opposite sex were least likely to last. “They're completely doomed,” Laursen says, in part because of pressure from other friends. Adolescents tend to sort themselves based on age, race and gender, so being friends with a member of the opposite sex limits the size of one's larger group of “running buddies” and taxes the relationship.
異性朋友之間的關(guān)系維持下去的可能性最小。勞爾森稱：“他們注定是要終結(jié)的”，部分原因可能是來(lái)自于其他朋友的壓力。青少年傾向于將朋友按年齡、種族和性別等因素予以分類，因此，和異性交朋友會(huì)限制自己擴(kuò)大“同類好朋友”朋友圈，并且會(huì)給此種友誼造成負(fù)擔(dān)。

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