Friends forever : how girls and women forge lasting relationships Cover Image

Book

Friends forever : how girls and women forge lasting relationships / Suzanne Degges-White and Christine Borzumato-Gainey.

Degges-White, Suzanne. (Author). Borzumato-Gainey, Christine. (Added Author).

Summary:

From their biological and cultural origins to the varied manifestations of social connections, this book explores the deep bonds forged between women. By sharing stories from girls and women throughout their lives, the authors illustrate the roles that contemporary social relationships play at different stages in our lives while offering insights to deeper self-understanding and for finding, establishing, and sustaining relationships at any age. Through thick and thin and everything along the way, it is through friendships that we understand our lives. In this book, the authors not only explore the roles friendships play for girls and women over the course of a life, but offer a guide to finding new friends and enhancing current relationships. Using interviews with hundreds of women, spanning the ages of 4 to 94, this book provides readers with a contemporary perspective on female friendship. These personal stories, informed by the latest research on friendship, offer a rich and colotful picture that combines a life stage chronology of friendship with a guide for becoming the friend you would like to have while building strong friendships along the way.

Record details

ISBN: 9781442202009 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN: 1442202009 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN: 9781442202023 (electronic)
ISBN: 1442202025 (electronic)
Physical Description: vii, 281 p. ; 24 cm.
Publisher: Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c2011.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-273) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Friendship basics: an introduction -- Why Women Need Friends. The biology of friendship: to "tend and befriend" -- Friendship in context: social relationships in the twenty-first century -- "Friendology" : the science of friendship -- Friendship Chronology. Early childhood: first friends -- Adolescent friendships: seeking ourselves in our friends -- Emerging adulthood: decisions, decisions -- Coupled up, but no kids yet -- Motherhood: kids on board -- The midlife years: reconnecting with ourselves and seeking companions -- The long road home: community and friendship in older adulthood -- Making Friends, Starting With Yourself. Understanding who you are as a friend -- Roadblocks to friendships -- Taking a Census of Your Circle of Friends. Mapping out your friendscape -- Redesigning your social support landscape -- Finding new friends -- Strategies for Survival: Building And Maintaining Lasting Friendships. Building strong friendships from the beginning -- Tips to strengthen existing friendships -- Friendship in the digital age: technology keeps us connected, sometimes! -- Full-time friend, part-time lover: making friends with your mate -- Coming full circle with a circle of friends.