Full Description
Through thick and thin and everything along the way, it's through friendships that we understand our lives. In this book, authors Suzanne Degges-White, PhD and Christine Borzumato-Gainey, PhD 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, Friends Forever provides readers with a contemporary perspective on female friendship. These personal stories, informed by the latest research on friendship, offer a rich and colorful 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. Readers will learn how to design and sustain their ideal friendscape, the dynamic and often misunderstood realm in which such bonds flourish. The authors thoughtfully examine the biological and cultural drive towards social connections among women and provide self-reflection and self-exploration opportunities that encourage readers to better understand their own roles in relationships and the roles that others in their social landscapes play.
Contents
1 Introduction Friendship Basics 2 Part I: Why Women Need Friends 3 1 The Biology of Friendship - to "Tend and Befriend" 4 2 Friendship in Context: Social Relationships in the USA 5 3 "Friendology"or the Science of Friendship 6 Part II: Friendship Chronology 7 4 Early Childhood: First Friends 8 5 Adolescent Friendships: Seeking Ourselves in our Friends 9 6 Emerging Adulthood: Decisions, Decisions 10 7 Coupled-Up but No Kids Yet 11 8 Motherhood: Kids on Board 12 9 The Midlife Years: Re-Connecting with Ourselves & Seeking Companions 13 10 The Long Road Home: Community and Friendship in Older Adulthood 14 Part III: Making Friends - Starting with Yourself 15 11 Understanding Who You Are as a Friend 16 12 Roadblocks to Friendships 17 Part IV: Taking a Census of your Circle of Friends 18 13 Mapping Out Your FriendScape 19 14 Redesigning Your Social Landscape 20 15 Finding New Friends 21 Part V: Strategies for Survival - Building and Maintaining Lasting Friendships 22 16 Building Strong Friendships from the Beginning 23 17 Tips to Strengthen Existing Friendships 24 18 Friendship in the Digital Age: Technology Keeps Us Connected-Sometimes! 25 19 Full-Time Friend, Part-Time Lover: Making Friends with your Mate 26 20 Coming Full Circle with a Circle of Friends
