In this concluding chapter, we reflect on some of the challenges confronting researchers who seek to understand peer relationships within a cultural context. We focus specifically on some of the methodological issues that have been raised in the chapters and implications of these issues for future study. The chapters in this volume illustrate some of the methodological advances in the study of culture and social behavior, as well as the methodological pluralism that characterizes the field. In the following sections, we will discuss: (a) the assessment of cultural influence using between-group comparisons, (b) cultural psychology, and (c) developmental perspectives.

Equivalence and Biases in Cross-Cultural Comparisons

Many of the methodological discussions focusing on culture have addressed the difficulty of making valid inferences from comparisons of multiple cultures. A basic assumption underlying the work in the field is that the variation in the social or psychological functioning of individuals in different settings may indicate the causal influence of culture on individuals. Perhaps foremost among the issues discussed in the methodological literature in cross-cultural psychology is the need to systematically sample cultures on theoretical grounds so that the cultural groups represent variations in the theoretically relevant cultural dimension.

Although some advocates of theory-based sampling of cultures, such Van den Vijver and Leung (1997), recognize the value of two-culture comparisons when researchers have a compelling theoretical reason for comparing the two cultures, any two cultures are likely to vary on so many dimensions that it is difficult to isolate the elements that are responsible for differences between groups (Jahoda & Krewer, 1997).

Friendships, although generally conceptualized as voluntary associations between individuals, invariably occur within a cultural context. McCall (1988) argued that friendships are institutionalized, and that individuals are guided by cultural blueprints, which may specify persons who can and cannot be friends, the types of interactions that friends expected to have, and the emotional connectedness that friends are typically experience (see Bigelow, Tesson, & Lewko 1996, for a similar analysis). Participants in the friendship as well as others observing this friendship may experience tension if the friendship deviates from these blueprints. Unfortunately little attention has been devoted to understanding the cultural context within which friendships exist in part because anthropologists have paid limited attention to this subject (Bell & Coleman, 1999).

In this chapter, we review our research on the friendships of Indonesian, Korean, and U.S. youth in an effort to understand cultural variation in these relationships. We begin with a discussion of friendship in Indonesia, Korea, and the United States, followed by a brief review of some of the methodological underpinning of our work. We then focus on understanding cultural differences in the structure of friendship by exploring friendship exclusivity, which is the extent to which close friendship groups are open to inclusion of others. In the next section, we present our work on the characteristics of relationships across cultures, specifically focusing on provisions (i.e., intimacy and enhancement of worth), longevity, and conflict.

Cultural context plays an important role in the development of individual social and behavioral characteristics and peer relationships (e.g., Hinde, 1987). As a result, children in different cultures may engage in different types of social interactions and develop different types of relationships. Moreover, cultural values and beliefs, particularly those pertaining to developmental goals and socialization practices, may affect the function and organization of peer relationships. Specifically, cultural norms and values may serve as a basis for the interpretation of particular behaviors (e.g., aggression, sociability, shyness–inhibition) and for the judgment about the appropriateness of these behaviors. The interpretation and evaluation of social behaviors in turn may have pervasive implications for the processes of peer interactions and the formation of dyadic and group relationships. Finally, the cultural aspects of children's peer experiences are reflected in how they affect developmental pathways and outcomes. For example, the extent to which children's interactions with each other do or do not include responsibility for younger children in a culture (see Gaskins, this volume) may be associated with the later display of nurturance and prosocial behavior.

Despite the importance of cultural context for individual social functioning and peer interactions, the research on peer relationships has traditionally focused on Western, particularly North American, cultures. In the past decade, researchers have expanded their work considerably in non-Western regions of the world (e.g., Brown, Larson, & Saraswathi, 2002).