囧研究：爲什麼青春期的友誼總難以延續？

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.
你還記得七年級時最好的朋友是誰嗎？如果你想不起來，那可能是因爲那個年紀的友誼通常都難以延續。半數的友誼都不會超過一年。佛羅里達大西洋大學的心理學家佈雷特·勞爾森發佈的一項新研究顯示，長久維繫的友誼可以通過人口學統計數據和行爲相似性這兩方面預知。

“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：“中學時期會有很多變化，而那些變化會使得人們難以維持一段友誼”。當孩子們從一個學習階段步入另一個學習階段，參加或離開體育隊，或是有了新的課外的興趣愛好，那麼，和朋友在一起互動的機會就會此消彼長。中學也是孩子們自主能力逐漸增強的時期，孩子們有機會自己選擇朋友，或是決定是否要在這些關係上進行“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對七年級的友誼關係，到第十二個學年結束或是持續到第十二個學年。其發現了一些預示着友誼關係持續一年以上的重要的行爲特徵：知名度、上進心、和學業成績。兩個朋友在這些特徵上越相似，友誼關係將維持地越長久。

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.
異性朋友之間的關係維持下去的可能性最小。勞爾森稱：“他們註定是要終結的”，部分原因可能是來自於其他朋友的壓力。青少年傾向於將朋友按年齡、種族和性別等因素予以分類，因此，和異性交朋友會限制自己擴大“同類好朋友”朋友圈，並且會給此種友誼造成負擔。