Rebecca G. Adams

Aging well with friends and family.

Aging encourages people to enhance their friend and family relationships. In general, the elderly tend to have more heterogeneity in relationships as they grow older. They depend on these relationships for instrumental, financial and emotional support. As a result, older adults who have many friends and have close ties with their families are more socially and psychologically well-adjusted than those who are alienated from their networks.

The Long-term Evolution of the Family Structure of Teenage and Older Mothers.

Research into the evolution of the, family structure is important in understanding the consequences of teenage motherhood. In this longitudinal study of black, urban mothers in Woodlawn, a Chicago community, we compare 15 years of family evolution of teenage and older mothers. Teenage mothers not only frequently begin child rearing as the only adult at home but also are at high risk of becoming the only adult and remaining so as long as 15 years after the childs birth. This tendency towards mother aloneness is associated with less help in child rearing and less participation in voluntary organizations.

An Integrative Conceptual Framework for Friendship Research

In light of the increase in the number and rigor of studies on adult friendship and the tendency of kin and neighbor relationships to have become more structurally similar to friendship, this is a crucial juncture at which to pause and assess what we know and do not know about adult friendship, to begin a needed theoretical synthesis, to identify gaps in the literature and to produce guidelines for future research. The purpose of this article is to present an integrative conceptual framework, incorporating both sociological and psychological perspectives, for use in these endeavors. The framework posits that the social structural and psychological aspects of individual characteristics operate together to shape behavioral motifs which, in turn, influence friendship patterns (dyadic and network structure and phases). Furthermore, dyadic and network structure and phases affect one another through interactive friendship processes. The elements of this integrative framework and the relationships among them vary by structural and cultural context.

Definitions of friendship in the third age: age, gender, and study location effects

Friendship is not institutionalized in American society; hence, perceptions of it vary. Rather than studying sources of this variation, most scholars ignore the complexity, bemoan the difficulty it causes in analysis, or eliminate it. We examined the frequency of use of previously studied and emergent characteristics of friendship as definitional criteria and the age, gender, and cultural patterns associated with them. Data are from two North American cities: the Andrus Study of Older Adult Friendships in southeastern United States (28 women and 25 men, age 55 to 84), and the Social Relations Project in western Canada (39 women and 25 men, age 55 to 87). Definitions of friendship differed across age and gender groups within each culture, but most striking is cross-cultural variation.

Emotional Closeness and Physical Distance Between Friends: Implications for Elderly Women Living in Age-Segregated and Age-Integrated Settings

The author discusses the need for a better theoretical understanding of friendship in order for its role in the lives of elderly people to be understood. The applicability to friendship of Simmels approach to the study of social relationships is outlined. From this perspective, types of friendship are determined by the physical distance separating friends and the emotional closeness bringing them together. The data consist of seventy in-depth interviews of senior, unmarried women in a middle-class community bordering on Chicago. Qualitative data are reported to support quantitative analyses. There were positive relationships between emotional closeness and physical distance, duration and emotional closeness, and frequency of interaction and proximity. The author describes the implications for elderly women of the tendency for their close, old friends to be physically separated from them and their neighbors to be casual friends, but constant companions. The author discusses the effects of the age-density of residential context and life history on the types of friends the women had.

Problems with Friends in Old Age.

Although many studies of friendship support exist, little information is available on friendships negative dimensions. Guided by a conceptual framework encompassing structure, process, and phase elements of friendship patterns, we explored troublesome aspects of friendship in a probability sample of community residents, focusing on four types of problematic friendships. Data from in-depth interviews reveal that problems with friends stem from structural features internal to the dyad, factors external to the dyad, changes in the extent to which lives intersect, and day-to-day interactions. These results are based on 42 respondents reporting friendship problems, usually with one of the four focal types of friends, about evenly divided across genders, but showing an age trend. Except for the ended friendships, some of which had dis-solved long ago, problems were discussed in the context of ongoing relationships. Older adults do not necessarily terminate friendships that include certain difficulties.

Factors Underlying the Structure of Older Adult Friendship Networks.

This paper examines the structure of older adult friendship networks and how the immediate social environment in which they are embedded shapes them. Data were a probability sample (N = 65) of the residents of Greensboro, North Carolina, aged 55 years or older, living in noninstitutional settings. Four of six bivariate hypotheses regarding the relationships between measures of homogeneity, internal hierarchy, and solidarity derived from the friendship literature were confirmed, but none of the 10 hypotheses based on findings from the organizational literature was. We used factor analyses to examine the dimensions underlying these network characteristics and cluster analysis to identify patterns of relationships among these dimensions. The three factors underlying networks structure—egalitarianism, sociability, and religiosity—shaped the friendships of the respondents and reflected the culture and social structure of the context in which this study took place. Although all elderly in this study were generally subject to the same cultural and social structural forces, slightly different components affected the outsiders, low status insiders, and high status insiders and thus they had different patterns of friendship networks factors.

Family Caregiver Identity: A Literature Review

Background: Despite the multitude of available resources, family caregivers of those with chronic disease continually underutilize support services to cope with the demands of caregiving. Several studies have linked self-identification as a caregiver to the increased likelihood of support service use. Purpose: The present study reviewed the literature related to the development of family caregiver identity. Methods: After a systematic process to locate literature was completed, content analysis was conducted to determine major themes related to the development of caregiving identity. Results: Findings suggest that there are multiple factors related to the development of family caregiver identity, including role engulfment and reversal, loss of shared identity, family obligation and gender norming, extension of the former role, and development of a master identity. Discussion: Considering the role of identity in human behavior, health professionals can address the underutilization of support services by family caregivers of those with chronic disease by understanding the influences on the development of caregiver identity. Translation to Health Education Practice: This literature review will assist health educators in addressing the underutilization of support services by family caregivers of those with chronic disease.

Emerging Trends in Family Caregiving Using the Life Course Perspective: Preparing Health Educators for an Aging Society

Background: As life expectancy and morbidity related to chronic disease increase, the baby boomers will be called upon to provide care to aging members of their family or to be care recipients themselves. Purpose: Through the theoretical lens of the life course perspective, this review of the literature provides insight into what characteristics of baby boomers separate them from previous caregiving cohorts and how these characteristics will affect family caregiving. Methods: A systematic process to identify literature was completed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Results: Findings suggest multiple emerging trends related to caregiving, including (1) increasing use of digital technology for information gathering and support, (2) more diversity among caregivers and care recipients, (3) strained finances and loss of entitlements, (4) more complex care and care management, (5) demand for public policies related to caregiving, and (6) balancing work, family, chronic disease, and caregiving. Discussion: Examining the literature related to family caregiving and baby boomers through a life course perspective offers a unique and more complete understanding of emerging trends related to chronic disease management. Translation to Health Education Practice: These emerging trends offer health educators implications for strategies and best practices intended to support those involved in family caregiving.

Friendship and Happiness in the Third Age

This chapter examines the research related to only one of the many potential hypotheses derived from Havighurst’s (1961) statement regarding successful aging—i.e., that friendship and happiness are positively related and thus the role of friendship provides a viable alternative to adults who have experiences role losses associated with aging. Twenty-five studies of older adults were identified that included a measure of friendship or a related concept and of happiness or a related concept, all of which reported a positive correlation between the two variables. The work of friendship researchers to support Havighurst’s vision of social policy designed to promote successful aging is not finished, however. To complete their work, these researchers must encourage interventions to support opportunities for older adults to continue or increase their participation in the role of friendship as they age. For this reason, large, national, probability samples need to be studied over a sufficiently long period of time to ensure that we understand the relationships among aging, friendship activity, and happiness, and therefore any advice based on the available evidence is more likely to be good.