Nan Stevens

Friendships and adaptation in the life course

To consider friendships and their significance through the life course requires, first, differentiation of deep structure (i.e., reciprocity) from surface structure (i.e., the social exchange) and, second, assessment within a multifaceted framework that simultaneously emphasizes having friends, the identity of ones friends, and relationship quality. Having friends is correlated with a sense of well being across the life span, but developmental outcome also depends on the identity of ones friends as well as the quality of ones relationships with them. Greater attention needs to be given to the manner in which friendships differ from one another, continuities and changes across major developmental transitions, and differentiation of developmental pathways through which friendship experience contributes to individual outcome.

Friendships and Adaptation Across the Life Span

Friends foster self-esteem and a sense of well-being, socialize one another, and support one another in coping with developmental transitions and life stress. Friends engage in different activities with one another across the life span, but friendship is conceived similarly by children and adults. Friends and friendships, however, are not all alike. The developmental significance of having friends depends on the characteristics of the friends, especially whether the friends are antisocial or socially withdrawn. Outcomes also depend on whether friendships are supportive and intimate or fractious and unstable. Among both children and adults, friendships have clear-cut developmental benefits at times but are mixed blessings at other times.

Combating loneliness: a friendship enrichment programme for older women

Research indicates that friendship contributes to wellbeing in later life in various ways: through the provision of companionship in daily life, support during stressful transitions, sustainment of identity under changing circumstances and adaptation to old age. However not all older people have friends available who fulfil these different functions. In order to promote wellbeing and reduce loneliness, an educational programme on friendship enrichment for older women has been developed and implemented in the Netherlands. The friendship programmes main goal is empowerment; it helps women clarify their needs in friendship, analyse their current social network, set goals in friendship and develop strategies to achieve goals. Reduction of loneliness, when present, is also an important goal of the programme. A study that followed 40 participants during the year after the programme demonstrates that a majority succeeded in developing new, or improving existing, friendships and in significantly reducing their loneliness. They also reported changes related to the self and social behaviour. Limitations of the research design, reflection on the feasibility of reducing loneliness through a single type of intervention, and possible applications of the programmes design to other areas, are presented in the discussion.

Gender and Adaptation to Widowhood in Later Life

Examination of the well-being and living conditions of older widows and widowers reveals ways in which adaptation to loss of the partner in later life is influenced by gender. This article compares the results of two Dutch studies, one on men and one on women between the ages of 60 and 75, living independently and widowed three to five years earlier. The same combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used in these studies. The results indicate remarkable similarities in the well-being of the widows and widowers. Gender influences the availability of resources such as income, education and freedom from health restrictions, with widowers demonstrating clear advantages compared to widows. In the area of relational resources, widows who are well adapted have more varied sources of support, including close female friends and supportive neighbours in addition to children. Widowers benefit more from the presence of new partners or partner-like relationships; the tendency of many widowers to rely strongly on children is a disadvantage. Few significant differences were found in the relational needs acknowledged by widows and widowers; however, acknowledging the need for intimacy is differentially related to life satisfaction for widowed men and women. An unexpected finding is the effect of gender on life satisfaction, which remains when other variables have been entered into the equation in regression analysis. Several possible interpretations for this gender factor are provided; these involve the possibility of greater diversity in the ways in which women adapt to widowhood, womens special virtuosity in relationships, and a kind of flexibility that is developed in the course of womens lives which helps them adapt to major change later life, despite structural disadvantages in comparison to men.

Breaking the cycle of loneliness? Psychological effects of a friendship enrichment program for older women

The present study examines effects of participation in the friendship enrichment program, an intervention that is designed to stimulate improvement in friendship, self-esteem and subjective well-being, as well as reduction in loneliness among older women. The intervention group was compared to a control group of women who were interested in the program or in improving their friendships. All respondents had been studied at three points in time: at a baseline, prior to the program; three months later, and 9–10 months after baseline. The results indicate that the program was successful in attracting lonely older women who were willing to work on their friendships. Many participants reported improvement in the quantity and quality of their friendships. The program was moderately successful in stimulating improvement in subjective well-being and awareness of the need for an active stance toward achieving goals in social relations, especially in friendship. Loneliness among the participants was reduced, but it also declined in the control group, and both groups continued to experience loneliness. One conclusion is that an effective intervention to help older women reduce their loneliness should be multi-dimensional focusing not only on friendship but also on other personal and situational factors contributing to loneliness.

Stimulating friendship in later life: A strategy for reducing loneliness among older women

In order to promote well-being and alleviate loneliness among older women, a program was developed to help them improve existing friendships or develop new friendships. In a pilot study thirty-two participants in the program were interviewed on their friendships and loneliness at two points in time, immediately following the course and a year later. Loneliness scores were compared to those of a matched control group from a large nationally representative sample. Both groups were very lonely initially and demonstrated a significant reduction in loneliness a year later. However more women in the friendship course were successful in reducing their loneliness; these women had developed new friendships of varying degrees of closeness and had increased the complexity of their friendship networks. These changes are significantly related to the decline in loneliness. Limitations of the research design and suggestions for future studies on the friendship program are presented in the discussion.

Marriage, Social Integration, and Loneliness in the Second Half of Life A Comparison of Dutch and German Men and Women

Although marriage is usually considered to be socially integrative, some studies indicate that it can be privatizing, enclosing couples in isolated dyads. This study compared the availability of support, companionship, and negative relational experiences in various types of relationships for married men and women aged 40 to 85 years in the Netherlands and Germany. The Dutch demonstrated a more varied pattern of relationships beyond the nuclear family than the Germans but also reported worrying about a greater variety of people. In both countries, men relied more strongly on their partners, whereas women had more varied networks and experienced more worries. A continuum of social involvement can be drawn with German men, for whom marriage is privatizing, at one end and Dutch women, for whom marriage is highly socially integrating, at the other. Loneliness was related to the provisions of social relations, but no national and gender differences in predictors of loneliness were found.

Cohort differences in having and retaining friends in personal networks in later life

Friendship has increased in importance during the last few decades. The study examines whether friendship has become more prevalent in personal networks of older adults. Three cohorts of older persons have been followed since 1992 for 17 years in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. The younger cohort had friends more often and retained friends longer than two older cohorts. The differences are related to personal choice, relational competence and greater structural opportunities for making and keeping friends that were available to the younger cohort. Women retained same-sex friends longer than men. The oldest women lost cross-sex friends more often than did men. This is related to different gender-specific survival rates and to women’s tendency to retain friendships longer.

Partners and others: Social provisions and loneliness among married Dutch men and women in the second half of life

The main goal of this article was to test whether the perceived availability of social provisions within and outside marriage in a representative Dutch sample of men and women in late adulthood would differ from findings from similar studies in the United States. We predicted that there would be more similarity between married men and women in self-reported social relationships, social provisions, and loneliness in the more feminine culture of The Netherlands than is often reported in research from the United States, where the dominant culture is more masculine. Data are from the Dutch Aging survey that involved a representative sample of 983 people between the ages of 40 and 85. As predicted, we found similarity between men and women in the size and composition of core networks, the provision of emotional support to and from the partner, and in the provision of instrumental support to others. Contrary to our hypothesis, women exchanged more emotional support with friends, children, and other family and identified these persons more often as companions in leisure activities. Despite the women’s greater reported involvement in other relationships, these men were not lonelier than were women. For both men and women, social provisions from close relationships beyond the partner relation contributed to alleviating loneliness.

A Latent Class Analysis of Friendship Network Types and Their Predictors in the Second Half of Life

OBJECTIVES Friendships contribute uniquely to well-being in (late) adulthood. However, studies on friendship often ignore interindividual differences in friendship patterns. The aim of this study was to investigate such differences including their predictors. METHOD The study builds on Matthewss qualitative model of friendship styles. Matthews distinguished 3 approaches to friendship differing by number of friends, duration of friendships, and emotional closeness. We used latent class analysis to identify friendship network types in a sample of middle-aged and older adults aged 40-85 years (N = 1,876). Data came from the German Aging Survey (DEAS). RESULTS Our analysis revealed 4 distinct friendship network types that were in high congruence with Matthewss typology. We identified these as a discerning style, which focuses on few close relationships, an independent style, which refrains from close engagements, and 2 acquisitive styles that both acquire new friends across their whole life course but differ regarding the emotional closeness of their friendships. Socioeconomic status, gender, health, and network-disturbing and network-sustaining variables predicted affiliations with network types. DISCUSSION We argue that future studies should consider a holistic view of friendships in order to better understand the association between friendships and well-being in the second half of life.