We investigated gender segregation and its correlates in the friendships of U.S. adults aged 50–74 years (177 women; 52 men). Gender segregation existed in our midlife sample such that 74% of friend nominations were same gender. Similar to research on other periods of the adult lifespan we found that for women, gender segregation was negatively correlated with competitive activity orientation, positively correlated with beliefs about same-gender peers’ communicative responsiveness and negatively correlated with beliefs about other-gender peers’ communicative responsiveness. Women’s gender segregation was also negatively correlated with masculinity and positively correlated with gender-reference group identity. For men, gender segregation was negatively correlated with beliefs about other-gender peers’ communicative responsiveness and positively correlated with gender-reference group identity. Our results suggest that gender segregation continues to exist at midlife and that there is some continuity in the correlates of gender segregation across adulthood.

我们调查了 50-74 岁美国成年人（177 名女性；52 名男性）之间的性别隔离及其与友谊的相关性。在我们的中年样本中存在性别隔离，因此 74% 的朋友提名是同性的。与成人寿命其他时期的研究类似，我们发现对于女性，性别隔离与竞争活动取向呈负相关，与对同性同龄人的交际反应的信念呈正相关，与对其他性别同龄人的交际能力的信念呈负相关。响应性。女性的性别隔离也与男性气质呈负相关，与性别参照群体认同呈正相关。对于男人来说，性别隔离与对其他性别同龄人的交际反应的信念呈负相关，与性别参照群体认同呈正相关。我们的研究结果表明，性别隔离在中年继续存在，并且成年后性别隔离的相关性存在一定的连续性。