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Facilitating friendship formation in late life: Puzzles and challenges
Author(s) -
Rook Karen S.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/bf00942258
Subject(s) - friendship , citation , health psychology , psychology , sociology , library science , computer science , world wide web , social psychology , public health , medicine , nursing
Considerable evidence indicates that friendships contribute to the psychological well-being of older adults. Seeking ways to help lonely older adults form new friendships thus makes a good deal of sense, but as the disappointing results reported by Heller et al. (1991) indicate, translating this conceptually sound goal into a practical reality presents many challenges. This commentary seeks to build upon the authors' analysis of factors that may have undermined the success of their intervention by discussing the social contexts that may be most conducive to friendship formation in late life and by considering whether kin ties represent a more viable focus of intervention efforts than do peer ties.