Initial Development of a Situation‐based Measure of Emerging Adults’ Social Competence in their Same‐gender Friendships

This paper describes the development of a situation‐based tool to assess emerging adults’ social competence with same‐gender friends, providing information about (1) challenges occurring in these relationships, (2) the behaviors used to manage these situations, and (3) the perceived effectiveness of these strategies. Undergraduates ( N  = 747; 409 women; M age  = 20.16, SD  = 1.43) participated in five studies. Transgressions, conflicts of interest, and support situations emerged as key challenges, and emerging adults reported using aggressive, assertive, avoidant, and apologizing behaviors to manage these situations. In general, apologizing and assertive behaviors were judged more effective than aggressive or avoidant behaviors. Results yielded the Inventory of Friendship Challenges for Emerging Adults (IFCEA), which showed expected associations with measures of interpersonal behavior.