Continuity and Change in Friendships in Advanced Old Age: Findings from the Berkeley Older Generation Study

Abstract

A longitudinal study of friendships between young-old and old-old adults found far more continuity than change in amount of contact with friends. Nevertheless, activities with casual friends more often occurred in groups, whereas activities with close friends were more often concerned with exchanging confidences, with sharing interesting experiences and thoughts, and with helping each other. Gender differences are more pronounced than life-course differences. Men declined in number of new friends, in their desire for close friendships, in the less intimate nature of their interactions with friends, and in involvement in beyond-family activities, while women did not change. Questions about closest friends revealed only a trivial difference between men and women in young-old age; but in old-old age, men (but not women) had declined in many measures of friendship.