Friendship is an extremely significant and
meaningful relationship for women of all ages, yet
little research has been conducted on the friendships of
adult women. Recent research indicates that aspects of
friendship change as people progress through their adult
years and take on family and work roles, but previous
studies have focused on the structural attributes of
friendships and not on the qualitative nature of these
relationships.
The main focus of this research was the level of
emotional closeness between adult women and their
closest non-kin friend, and how that closeness may be
associated with women's stage of the family life cycle
and work status. In addition, frequency of contact and
similarities between friends were also investigated. A
questionnaire was mailed to 666 randomly selected women
from the voter registration list of a partly urban
county. The final sample consisted of 315 adult women.
Findings from this study indicate that emotional
closeness and frequency of contact in the closest
friendships of adult women were not associated with
respondents' family or work status. Women and their
closest friends were significantly similar in gender,
age, family life cycle stage, and work status. All
respondents were more likely to have close friends who
were married. Intimacy was found to be related to
duration of the friendship, where the friend lives, and
form of contact. The primary source of close
friendships for women at all stages of the family life
cycle was either community or work.
The data indicate that women are similar to their
closest friend in certain social attributes and are able
to maintain close friendships during adult years even
when other roles are making demands on their time and
energy. Friendship is a vital and meaningful
relationship to women throughout adulthood. Continued
research which investigates the qualitative nature of
these relationships from a dyadic and longitudinal
perspective is needed. / Graduation date: 1991
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/38152 |
| Date | 17 April 1991 |
| Creators | Goward, Eleanor L. |
| Contributors | Zvonkovic, Anisa M. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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