Friends Forever: How Girls and Women Forge Lasting Relationships - Hardcover

Suzanne Degges-White; Christine Borzumato-Gainey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1442202009 ISBN 13: 9781442202009

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011

Synopsis

Though a woman's life and the world around them may change, it's the need for friendship that remains an irreplaceable constant. From the biological and cultural origins to the varied manifestations of social connections, this book explores the deep friendship bonds forged between women. Authors Degges-White and Gainey thoughtfully illustrate the roles that contemporary social relationships play at different stages in our lives while offering insights to deeper self-understanding and for finding, establishing, and sustaining relationships at any age.
The authors offer a guide to finding new friends and enhancing current relationships. Based on 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 combined with academic research present a multi-section work 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. Degges-White and Borzumato-Gainey 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.
Readers will be given tools to enrich their lives and their relationships. At the most basic level, readers will come away with the following:
1) An understanding of the influence of biology, psychology, and society on friendship needs;
2) Sense of connection to other women who have struggled with challenges to lasting friendships;
3) Greater knowledge of the personal qualities that are crucial to lasting friendships and the level to which she offers these to her friends;
4) A new perspective on her current network of friends and a new understanding of how well these friends are meeting her emotional and instrumental needs;
5) Encouragement to try the presented strategies to transform her current network into a more effective support system; and
6) Encouragement and "road-tested" approaches for making new friends and strengthening current friendships.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Through thick and thin and everything along the way, it's through friendships that we understand our lives. In this book, Suzanne Degges-White and Christine Borzumato-Gainey not only explore the roles friendships play for girls and women over the course of their lives, but also offer a guide to finding new friends and enhancing current relationships. Using interviews with hundreds of women, spanning the ages of four to ninety-four, 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 toward 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.

From the Back Cover:

"Friends are vital to our health and happiness, but finding and keeping friendsis not always easy. This wise book offers solid advice on how to build andmaintain strong friendships and an essential network of support. The authorsshed light on the potholes of friendship to prevent us from stumbling and tellhow to be the kind of friend whose relationships will endure 'forever.'"--Marla Paul, author of The Friendship Crisis:Finding, Making, and Keeping Friends When You're Not a Kid Anymore"Friends Forever carefully and cheerfully covers every aspect and stage ofgirls' and women's friendships with each other. Easy to read, well-researched,and accompanied by wonderful case examples, this book is a must for anyonewishing to understand the ins and outs of these vitally important relationships."--Geoffrey L. Greif, PhD, University of Maryland School of Social Work;author of Buddy System: Understanding Male Friendships

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1442202009
• ISBN 13: 9781442202009
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 296