Stability and change in late-life friendships

Abstract

This article draws on material from the Bangor Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The survivors, now all 80 plus, were interviewed first in 1979 and for the last time in 1995. This paper concentrates on friendship over that period. Answers to questions about the presence or absence of ‘real friends’ and about satisfaction with the status quo are related to personal strategies for managing change in the friendship network. Four types of response to current levels of friendship are identified: contented, dissatisfied, needy and resigned. Examples are given from each category, drawing on qualitative data.Findings suggest three types of movement over the 16 years in the relationships of these very old respondents: contraction in the friendship network, expansion, and the replacement of departed friends or fading friendships. New friendships were unusual in departing from same-sex, same age and reciprocal norms of adult friendship. The findings indicate that older adult friendships might breach several of the norms of friendship common in earlier adulthood; the distinctiveness of close relationships in advanced old age calls for its treatment as a separate life stage.

Social Embeddedness and Late-Life Parenthood

“…In their study of the informal help provided to childless older adults who were recently released from the hospital, Johnson and Catalano (1981) show that although friends, neighbors, and distant kin can and do take on caregiving responsibilities, the care they provide tends to be less intense. Jerrome and Wenger (1999) have noted similar patterns more recently in the United Kingdom. Generally speaking, friends, neighbors, and distant kin are less likely to commit themselves to long-term involvement, and they are also more likely to help find formal care rather than provide care directly themselves.…”

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

“…These findings are a reminder that decline in involvement in friendship is not a painful inevitability of aging (Field, 1999;Jerrome & Wenger, 1999). It is possible to actively manage one's social relations as one ages, adapting friendships to new circumstances such as retirement, relocation and partner loss, and substituting new friendships for those that have been lost.…”

The Significance of Social Engagement in Relocated Older Adults

“…This was surprising, as the notion of social aging can imply the development of relationships with others (Bennett, 2002), and because a number of researchers in gerontology (Aartsen, van Tilburg, Smits, & Knipscheer, 2004;Buys, 2001;Jerrome & Wenger, 1999) regrouped all types of relationships under the global term "friendship," thus creating an expectation that all seniors develop friendship connections.…”

“…Furthermore, the types of relationships older adults form play a task-specific role (Dono et al, 1979;Mesch & Manor, 1998). It is also of significance that as people grow older, they have fewer friends (Jerrome & Wenger, 1999), partly because of changes outside the relationship, such as illness or death. Jerrome and Wenger (1999) concluded that many people in their study chose social engagement by making new friends, but that the majority of older people were content with more restricted lives.…”