The Value of Friendship: Social Validation and Support for the Individual
Takasaki, Kara Leiko
2011
- The decline in traditional marriage and the increasing prevalence of singlehood, cohabitation, divorce, and remarriage has irrevocably altered the landscape of American kinship. Although friendship has been shown to be an undervalued relationship in comparison to the historically and politically dominant institutions of marriage and family, during this period of relationship transformation, friendship ... read morehas become an increasingly salient alternative resource of support and stability to individuals facing multiple relationship transitions over the life course. This thesis offers a qualitative investigation of the value of friendship for study participants in the context of other relationships. My results are based on 16 in-depth semi-structured interviews with 8 male and 8 female heterosexual participants aged 24-38 years residing in the Boston area. Participants described a diversity of practices and preferences for intimacy in relationships. In order to establish intimacy in the ambiguous relationship of friendship, they had to navigate intimacy throughout the process of creating and maintaining a highly individualized relationship. The voluntary investment in friendship "not compelled or obligated by collective bonds" resulted in enhanced social validation, described by participants as unique to the relationship of friendship. My findings demonstrate that friendship is more complex than has previously been shown. I also found that when friendship was a recognized bond in other kinship relationships, or acted as a supplementary resource to kinship relations, it produced enhanced benefits of support for well-being over the life course.read less
- ID:
- kk91fx88s
- Component ID:
- tufts:UA005.011.029.00001
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