CHFD220
The scholarly article that I reviewed is entitled “Effect of Gender and Psychosocial Factors on “Friends with Benefits” Relationships among Young Adults”. It was written by Jesse Owen and Frank D. Fincham. They had several hypotheses regarding the study of friendships with benefits. They were divided into two sets. The first set pertained to specific demographics and psychosocial predictors of participating in a relationship that was of Friends with Benefits status. This included factors such as alcohol consumption and gender. The second set of hypotheses examined the reactions to FWB relationships. The researchers were interested if the participants thought it was a positive or negative experience afterwards. All-in-all this led the researchers to a total of 11 hypotheses. 889 university students were used in the study. They were all under the age of 25 and had a median age of 19. (Actual range was 17-25). All of the students were participants in a general education social studies class and were offered extra credit for their class if they completed took part in a survey for this study. 54.3% of men and 42.9% of women that took the survey reported that they had participated in a Friends with Benefits relationship in the prior 12 months. The researches collected data on psychological distress, alcohol use, confidence, awareness, and thoughtfulness. Women seemed to have reported a higher trend towards psychological distress than the men in the study. The researchers also reported gender findings as to whether or not individuals had a positive or negative reaction to the event, if they had hoped for some sort of committed relationship from it, or if that have even been discussed. Women both hoped for and discussed commitment more than men did.
Finding a pop media article that related to this topic was not easy. I found numerous blog postings from Psychology Today and finally made the decision that this is going to have to be the best
References: Owen, J. & Fincham, F.D. (2011). Effects of gender and psychosocial factors on‘‘Friends with Benefits’’ relationships among young adults. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40, 311-320 http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/partying-101/201106/getting-messed-hook-the-role-alcohol-in-college-students-casual-sexual-enc. Retrieved 12/30/2012