Importance Of Friends Research Articles

Predictors of perceived togetherness in very old men and women: A 5-year follow-up study

Although a considerable amount of research has been carried out on older adults’ social ties, most of it has focused on quantitative aspects and on cross-sectional samples. In this study, the subjective aspect of social interaction is described by the concept of perceived togetherness. The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which different factors predict perceived togetherness in men and women over a 5-year period. It also addresses the question of whether it is possible to identify different subgroups in perceived togetherness. The data were collected with structured interviews and laboratory tests from 225 elderly people at ages 80 and 85. The results showed that the predictors of perceived togetherness partly differed between sexes as well as within the groups of males and females. Predictors common to both genders were contacts with friends, less depressive symptoms, higher education level and better coping with instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). The findings indicated the importance of friends. Widowhood and self-rated health were predictors in women but not in men. Moreover, there appeared to be two subgroups of women and men in perceived togetherness; these were labeled “socially embedded”, “socially isolated”, “socially active” and “solitary”. The results indicate diversity in perceived togetherness and its predictors. More attention should be paid to individual differences in order to prevent loneliness and to promote older adults’ well-being.

Friendship month

Paula Hammond discusses the importance of friendship in this topical assembly

Motivational differences among talented teenage athletes: the significance of gender, type of sport and level of excellence

A range of motivational characteristics were studied in a sample of 228 males and 124 females (age: 15–16 years) recruited from the most promising performers of different sports, mainly in western Norway. They all completed the Sport Orientation Questionnaire (competitiveness, win and goal orientation), the short Sensation Seeking Scale, the Life Orientation Test (optimism), a new scale on Social Reactivity (reactive and proactive negativism) and questions on the importance of friendship among sport performers and of being the best. Differences of motivational styles were tested between males and females, performers of endurance, explosive and team sports and moderately versus highly successful performers. The males scored significantly higher on competitiveness, win and goal orientation, sensation seeking and so-called reactive negativism, but scored significantly lower than females on the importance of friendship. More complex group differences were also significant. One example is the relatively high mean score for proactive negativism in males performing explosive sports and the low mean in females of team sports. Our findings indicate a role for gender, type of sport, and level of excellence in motivational differences among these promising athletes. The prospective significance of motivational differences for future success in sport competitions will be tested in a follow-up study.

The Sole Parent Family: Family and Support Networks

This paper reports on a research project that focused on the experiences of ten sole parents and their support networks. Results indicate that they relied both on informal support networks and welfare organizations in the initial period of sole parenthood but that this reliance waned over time. Participants accessed church groups, cancer support groups, governmental agencies, financial institutions, and counselling services. After the initial use of support networks, many of them became involved in recreational activities that they had not participated in during the course of their marriage. They emphasized the importance of friends who were influential in assisting them to cope with the initial stresses of sole parenting. Most were critical and disillusioned about the level and type of assistance from the extended family and the emotionally charged responses to their situation. They were also critical of Government services and felt stigmatised by the treatment they received.

The Rwanda Forum 2004

During two and a half weeks in Rwanda, working with young Rwandans, two history students from the UK became aware of history's importance for issues as seemingly distinct as friendship and global politics, and the importance of friendship and politics for history. On their return to the UK the two students, the writers of this essay, conceived and designed the Rwanda Forum which took place on the 27th March 2004 at the Imperial War Museum. A one day conference, the Rwanda Forum was the major UK event to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. Giving an account of the genesis of the Forum and exploring the themes which emerged during the day this essay explains the emotional and intellectual backdrop to the event. The Rwanda Forum was an act of protest. An act inspired by experience, empathy and a critical approach to the past. The Forum protested against the lack of international response to the genocide and the often silent and narrow focus of historical debate. The day reacted against irresponsibility in international politics and the lack of global thinking in our societies. The essay examines how and why the Forum attempted to create a wider history according to an inclusive sense of the world and of humanity. The Forum avoided battles about causes and consequences of the genocide which culminated in conclusion. Instead the Forum provided a space for the participants to make links between our differing personal histories and broaden our perspectives of our own histories. The essay discusses the problems of defining and responding to genocide, both in terms of international prevention and, after the event, through commemoration. Including brief extracts of testimonies and analysis from the day, the essay illustrates how the commemoration aimed to create shared memory while challenging myth, breaking silence and exposing the discrepancy between values held by the international community and the way that the world reacted to the genocide. The paper concludes by demonstrating how history, memory and commemoration can be used to ensure 'never again'.

Newtonianism and the enthusiasm of Enlightenment

The career of John Jackson (1686–1763), Arian theologian and controversialist, provides a key to unlocking the early reception and quick collapse of a Newtonian natural apologetic originally developed by Samuel Clarke. The importance of friendship and discipleship in eighteenth-century intellectual enquiry is emphasised, and the links between Newton and his followers are traced alongside those of a group of Cambridge Lockeans, led by Jackson’s direct contemporary Daniel Waterland, who proved instrumental in the initial dismantling of Clarke’s brand of Newtonian apologetic. The controversial context of this engagement is shown to have been largely provided by the religiously compromising rise of freethinking, and Tindal’s Christianity as old as the creation (1731) signalled the dangers to proponents of natural religion as an adjunct of Christian apologetic in such a heated atmosphere. Religious division of the sort that resulted paradoxically played into the hands of the freethinkers in the anticlerical atmosphere of the 1730s, and accusations were exchanged between Newtonians and Lockeans accordingly. The dynamic of England’s Enlightenment experience is, then, a complicated one, and, as the career and writings of Jackson and William Whiston demonstrate, it was one which absorbed as well as repudiated ‘enthusiasm’.

The importance of friendship

The importance of friendship

Some German (Pre-) Adolescents' Views on the Importance of Friends and God: A Pilot Study

Some German (Pre-) Adolescents' Views on the Importance of Friends and God: A Pilot Study

Young People's Socialisation into Sport: A Case Study of an Athletics Club

This paper explores young people's (9 to 15 years old) early socialisation into sport. We draw on data from an 18-month-long ethnography of the junior section of an athletics club in England, using field notes, interviews and a psychometric questionnaire. We begin by noting a trend towards increasing numbers of younger children participating in adult-organised, community-based sport. Within this context, we investigate the extent to which Siedentop's [(1995) Junior Sport and the evolution of sport cultures, Keynote presentation to the Junior Sport Forum, Auckland, New Zealand] three main goals for young people's participation in sport, i.e. the educative, public health and elite development, are met in specific, local junior sport settings such as Forest Athletics Club (FAC). We report that most of the young people participating in the Introductory Groups at FAC begin their socialisation into sport by 'sampling' a range of sports and other activities that are available to them. We note the key features of the sampling phase for these young people, including their involvement in sports and other activities in addition to athletics, their reasons for participation, the place of competition and the importance of friendship. We report that FAC created a climate for the Samplers, intentionally or not, conducive to the development of Siedentop's educative goal, and to a lesser extent the public health and elite development goals. In concluding, we note the implications of the study for community-based programmes run by clubs.

Young People's Socialisation into Sport: A Case Study of an Athletics Club

This paper explores young people's (9 to 15 years old) early socialisation into sport. We draw on data from an 18-month-long ethnography of the junior section of an athletics club in England, using field notes, interviews and a psychometric questionnaire. We begin by noting a trend towards increasing numbers of younger children participating in adult-organised, community-based sport. Within this context, we investigate the extent to which Siedentop's [(1995) Junior Sport and the evolution of sport cultures, Keynote presentation to the Junior Sport Forum, Auckland, New Zealand] three main goals for young people's participation in sport, i.e. the educative, public health and elite development, are met in specific, local junior sport settings such as Forest Athletics Club (FAC). We report that most of the young people participating in the Introductory Groups at FAC begin their socialisation into sport by 'sampling' a range of sports and other activities that are available to them. We note the key features of the sampling phase for these young people, including their involvement in sports and other activities in addition to athletics, their reasons for participation, the place of competition and the importance of friendship. We report that FAC created a climate for the Samplers, intentionally or not, conducive to the development of Siedentop's educative goal, and to a lesser extent the public health and elite development goals. In concluding, we note the implications of the study for community-based programmes run by clubs.

Lessons learned

Lessons learned

The beauty of friendship

The importance of friendship in the later work of Michel Foucault is increasingly being recognized, but the relationship between friendship and Foucault's concept of `life as a work of art' is not well understood. Friendship, traditionally associated with `masculine' virtue, can be seen to undergo significant change in connection with the emergence of modern sexuality. I suggest that Foucault's work alerts us to the fact that friendship is a key site for challenging the stability of the modern gender regime and the institution of heterosexuality that underlies it. By drawing on insights from Nietzsche, Heidegger and Derrida, I elaborate upon the significance of both friendship and the work of art in Foucault. I argue that the intrinsic connection of the aesthetic with beauty is central to Foucault's `aesthetics of existence'. A focus on beauty enables us to see how friendship can be understood in terms of the work of art.

The dialectic of friendship for people with psychiatric disabilities.

In the psychiatric literature, the meaning and importance of friendship has remained largely unexplored, subsumed under the rubric of social support or viewed as a component of community integration. Twenty-one qualitative interviews were conducted with individuals suffering from psychiatric disabilities focusing on the meaning of friendship as they described it. Analysis revealed the contrasts, contradiction and paradox of friendship for this group of people. The ongoing struggles of people with psychiatric disabilities regarding the need to connect with others and have friends, and conversely, the need to be alone and to withdraw from others, was highlighted.

Rethinking Leadership: Feminist Care Ethics. Spotlight on Gerri Perreault

Perreault’s research examines the use of friendship as a metaphor to define leadership and links it to feminist care ethics. Her work, previously published in A Leadership Journal: Women and Leadership–Sharing the Vision (Summer 1996) – spotlighted below – and the Journal of Leadership Studies (Winter 1996), focuses on the importance of friendship as a paradigm for a relational view of leadership. She contrasts this model with the metaphor of military battle that she sees as still dominant in our thinking and therefore our actions. She has also written about ethical followership as an important link to ethical leadership. Dr. Perreault argues that new and complex challenges press us to redefine leadership and she proposes friendship as a metaphor and a vision for the type of leadership needed to meet contemporary challenges. She also links her work to that of feminist care ethics – as defined by Gilligan (1982, 1995) and Noddings (1984, 1989, 1990). She uses illustrations to demonstrate how leadership-as-friendship is present in the views and practices of effective and contemporary leaders to inspire our best selves as leaders. Perreault was contacted about her research.

Children’s Creative Collaborations: The Importance of Friendship when Working Together on a Musical Composition

This study examined the social processes involved in children’s collaborative musical compositions. The communication (verbal and musical) between same‐gender pairs of 11–12 year olds was analysed using measures of the relative distribution of transactive and non‐transactive elements. Results suggested that mutual friendship pairs were characterised by different communication patterns in both their music and talk compared to those of non‐friend pairs, with significantly more transactive communication in both channels. Previous experience of instrumental lessons also had an effect, with experienced children playing and talking in a more transactive way than those without such experience. On teacher’s ratings of the final composition, those produced by pairs of friends received significantly higher scores than those of non‐friends. Multiple regression analyses suggested that this final score could be predicted from the amount of transactive communication observed between the children. The results indicate some of the ways in which friendship influences the collaborative process in a creative, open‐ended task by facilitating a high level of mutual engagement during the interaction and with the outcome of higher quality compositions.

Friendship Across the Life Cycle

Using a group work model, this article discusses a short term group for older women developed to explore the importance of friendship in late life. In collaboration with group leaders, group members determined weekly topics that explored the significance of friendship through the life cycle. Social work group practice that focuses on the meaning and development of friendship for and with older women is presented as an effective therapeutic intervention for practitioners in settings such as community mental health clinics, senior centers, elderly housing, home care agencies and nursing homes.

Design Ethnography

LACKING OTHER criteria, we make judgments based on our own culture, values, and experience. The trouble is this narrow point of view isn't effective in the global marketplace. Design ethnography extends the cultural panorama. Illustrating this strategy and trying to decipher its implications for developing products and services, Tony Salvador, Genevieve Bell, and Ken Anderson ponder the relationships between the American family room and the Italian kitchen table, between food shopping and the importance of friendship.

Predicting Adolescents' Initiation of Intercourse and Contraceptive Use

This paper examines whether variables consistent with problem behavior theory predict grade of onset of first intercourse and adoption of effective contraception. A total sample of 3,419 Wisconsin adolescents in Grades 7, 9, and 11 participated in a survey of health‐related behaviors administered 3 times across a 6‐year period. The sample is 87% White. Multiple regression methods generated different models for onset of sexual intercourse vs. contraceptive adoption. Consistent with problem behavior theory, sexual onset is predicted by the adolescent's behavioral system, perceived peer substance use/abuse, importance of friends, and extent to which the adolescent felt harried and believed it was okay to break laws. Contraceptive adoption is predicted by family structure, socioeconomic variables, and self‐esteem. Age and gender model differences emerged.

The transfer process between special and mainstream schools: the pupils’ experience

ABSTRACT This paper explores the perspectives of a group of 15 pupils, all of whom have had experience of both special and mainstream schooling: seven had transferred from special to mainstream, and eight from mainstream to a special school. The paper focuses on the importance of friends and friendship groups, the pupils’ awareness of the different cultures of schools and the importance of these two issues in the period of adjustment following transfer. It is argued that an understanding of the pupil perspective in this is crucial not only to transfer between special and mainstream schools, but also when considering factors affecting the inclusion of pupils who have disabilities or who experience difficulties in learning. A model, the ‘Pathways Model’, is presented and used in the exploration of pupil experience of transfer.

Adolescents' Closeness with Parents, Siblings, and Friends in Three Countries: Canada, Belgium, and Italy

This study compared interpersonal relationships of adolescents from Canada, Belgium, and Italy. The sample of 377 subjects was composed almost equally of boys and girls, grouped into three age groups ranging from 11 to 18 years. Each subject participated in a semistructured interview designed to examine the levels of closeness with the mother, father, siblings, and close friends. The study revealed important discrepancies among the adolescents from the three countries. Family was found to occupy a more central role in the relational world of Italian adolescents, whereas friends were found to occupy a more important place for Canadian youth. Belgian adolescents were found to adopt a middle position between these two extremes. Variations in cultural context and cultural practices are explored as a possible interpretation of these differences. The study also revealed significant consistencies across the three countries: the importance of friends in the relational life of adolescents, the privileged position of the mother in the family, and the distant position of the father.