During old age there are many challenges that the elderly have to meet. These challenges can include adapting to diminished bodily abilities, decreased intellectual vitality, the death of a spouse and the loss of friends, adapting to new roles and activities, a change in income, a change of housing conditions and retirement. Due to advanced technology and to more sophisticated medical services, life expectancy has changed significantly, which implies that generally speaking people could grow older and that they have to deal with life transitions and daily demands. Friendships enable people to cope better with life transitions and challenges. Very little research, however, is available on the friendship patterns of the elderly. A quantitative, single cross-sectional survey study was conducted where 200 elderly people in South Africa were interviewed by means of a semi-structured questionnaire. The purpose of the research was to investigate friendship patterns among the elderly, and to confirm whether or not people have fewer friendships as they grow older. Data has been statistically analysed by means of frequencies. Results indicate that as people age, they indeed have fewer friendships due to the death of friends, transport problems, illness and the fact that friends moved away. It was also found that although the number of friends becomes fewer, friendship is still regarded as an important aspect. Suggestions are made regarding the value of having different kinds of friendships, which will promote resilience and create more social resources to deal with challenging life transitions. / Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether child behaviour characteristics and parental attachment are predictive of quality of friendships in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Participants were 30 children aged 8 through 12 with ADHD from local schools in Victoria and one primary care-giver for each child. Based on multiple regressional analyzes were three predictors. Anger/Alienation. Trust. and Social Problems explained unique variation in children's quality of friendship. Results provide support that the more children characterized their attachment to primary caregivers by Anger/Alienation, the lower they rated their quality of friendship with peers. In addition, the more children characterized their attachment to primary caregivers by Trust. the higher they reported their quality of friendship with peers to be. Finally, the more social problems parents reported their children experiencing the lower the children reported their friendship quality to be.

This thesis explores street involved youth friendship in Victoria, Canada. The friendships of street involved youth—that is “young people who may or may not be homeless and spend some time in the social and economic world of ‘the street’” (Perkin 2009)—are regularly thought and talked about as being prone to deviant or risky behaviour, particularly in social scientific literature and by the mainstream media. I conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 street involved youth (ages 16 – 21) who talked about friendships as important relationships offering (among other things) help, protection, support, nurture and meaningful existences not available to them otherwise. Street youth friendships allow youth some escape and respite from damaging neoliberal political-economic policies in Victoria, Canada. In addition, street involved youth friendships bring into question dominant developmentalist discourses and assumptions as youth agentively and expertly negotiate their friendships in careful and nuanced ways. / Graduate / 0326 / twerdal@uvic.ca

Övervikt och fetma är ett snabbt växande folkhälsoproblem som medför ökad risk för psykosocialt lidande och många allvarliga sjukdomar. Särskilt oroande är att övervikt och fetma allt oftare drabbar barn och ungdomar. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om det finns ett samband mellan Body Mass Index (BMI) och Känsla Av SAMmanhang (KASAM) hos elever i skolår 9, samt att analysera kön och psykosociala faktorers (familje- och kamratrelationer) eventuella inverkan på relationen BMI och KASAM. Det statistiska materialet är hämtat från undersökningen ”Liv och hälsa - Ung 2004 Västmanland” där KASAM- skalan med 13 frågor används. Analysmetoden är en multipel regression. Resultaten indikerar svaga samband mellan variablerna. Starkast är sambandet mellan BMI/KASAM och kön, där pojkarna uppvisar högre BMI än flickorna. Mer familjeregler relaterar till lägre BMI. Bättre kommunikation, förtrolighet och sammanhållning relaterar till högre BMI. Variationer i BMI är betydligt mer mångfasetterat eller grundläggande än vad denna studie kunnat belysa. Förklaringar till detta kan vara att variablerna inte har så stort förklaringsvärde, metodvalet är fel och/eller att KASAM-frågorna är svårförståeliga. / Overweight and obesity is a fast growing public health issue that leads to increased risk of psychosocial suffering and many serious illnesses. Especially worrying is that overweight and obesity more often affect children and adolescents. The aim of this study is to examine if there is a relation between Body Mass Index (BMI) and Sense of Coherence (SOC) among pupils in grade 9 and also analyse sex and psychosocial elements (family relations and friendship) possible influence on the relation BMI and KASAM. The statistical material is taken from the survey “Liv och hälsa - Ung 2004 Västmanland” where the 13-item SOC-scale is used. The method of analysis is a multiple regression. The results imply weak relations between the variables. The strongest relation is between sex and BMI/KASAM, where boys show a higher BMI than girls. More family rules relate to lower BMI. Better communication, familiarity and connectedness relates to higher BMI. The variations in BMI are considerably more nuanced or fundamental than this study has been able to illustrate. Explanations can be that the variables do not have a great explanatory value, the choice of method is wrong and/or the questions concerning SOC are difficult to comprehend.

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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-136). / xiv, 136 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

Friends are of crucial importance to lesbians� lives, their significance heightened due to lack of acceptance from blood family, work colleagues and society. Despite a proliferation of literature on lesbians� love relationships, lesbians� friendships remain understudied. In the light of theorising about widespread shifts in intimacy patterns in modern industrial societies, this thesis examines the role of friendship for contemporary lesbians. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, using lesbian feminist, feminist psychological and mainstream sociological theories to interpret lesbians� negotiations of their friendships and preoccupations with their own continually developing sense of self. The study finds that firstly, the most significant issue in negotiating friendships is deciding on a lesbian identity despite socialisation to �compulsory heterosexuality�. Friends are expected to be accepting and supportive or they are lost. Discrimination, the fact that the lover is the �best friend�, struggles with difference in lesbian communities, time constraints and a more general shift to individualism mean that community and family contacts are replaced by small, supportive and affirming friendship networks. These meet needs and within them lesbians negotiate a sense of self, but for the most part with no template of political consciousness. Secondly, while friendships are important, they are also difficult. The fluidity of the friendship relationship, blurred boundaries between friends and lovers, and women�s moral �imperative to care� all provide barriers to communication. Thirdly, while lesbians value �the relational self�, a confident sense of self is challenged when close-connected relationships sit at odds both with mainstream, heterocentric culture, and with traditional models of psychology which promote independence and separateness. Lesbians who are confident communicators, who have access to alternative feminist discourses which value relatedness, and who, together with their friends, are open to change, are able to negotiate satisfactory friendships and relationships. The study demonstrates lesbians� complex subjectivities as changing selves are negotiated through friendships, love relationships and communities, particularly through experiences of loss.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Mar. 11, 2008). Directed by Esther M. Leerkes; submitted to the School of Human Environmental Sciences. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-47).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2005. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-211). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR19798