Friends Forever

How Girls and Women Forge Lasting Relationships

By (author) Suzanne Degges-White, Christine Borzumato-Gainey

Not available to order

Publication date:

16 January 2011

Length of book:

296 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442202023

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 and Christine Borzumato-Gainey 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.

Introduction Friendship Basics

Part I: Why Women Need Friends
1. The Biology of Friendship - to "Tend and Befriend"
2. Friendship in Context: Social Relationships in the USA
3. "Friendology"or the Science of Friendship

Part II: Friendship Chronology
4. Early Childhood: First Friends
5. Adolescent Friendships: Seeking Ourselves in our Friends
6. Emerging Adulthood: Decisions, Decisions
7. Coupled-Up but No Kids Yet
8. Motherhood: Kids on Board
9. The Midlife Years: Re-Connecting with Ourselves & Seeking Companions
10. The Long Road Home: Community and Friendship in Older Adulthood

Part III: Making Friends - Starting with Yourself
11. Understanding Who You Are as a Friend
12. Roadblocks to Friendships

Part IV: Taking a Census of your Circle of Friends
13. Mapping Out Your FriendScape
14. Redesigning Your Social Landscape
15. Finding New Friends

Part V: Strategies for Survival - Building and Maintaining Lasting Friendships
16. Building Strong Friendships from the Beginning
17. Tips to Strengthen Existing Friendships
18. Friendship in the Digital Age: Technology Keeps Us Connected-Sometimes!
19. Full-Time Friend, Part-Time Lover: Making Friends with your Mate
20. Coming Full Circle with a Circle of Friends

Friends are vital to our health and happiness, but finding and keeping pals is not always easy. This wise book offers solid advice on how to build and maintain strong friendships and an essential network of support. The authors shed light on the potholes of friendship to prevent us from stumbling and tell how to be the kind of friend whose relationships will endure 'forever.'