Multiple types of friends and life stage differences in friendship

Lee, Keunbok

doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2022.06.001

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Our study showed that foster carers in MB were most highly connected with ‘people in their foster care network’ equally followed by ‘people from services’ and ‘other family and friends’. Studies indicate that supporting foster carers to build or strengthen their networks of support may lead to greater self-efficacy in managing the demands of fostering and reduce reliance on agency and statutory case workers (Bruine de Bruin et al, 2020; Lee, 2022; Litwin & Shaul, 2019; Sebba & Luke, 2013). In their integrative review of the foster carer’s experiences, Blythe et al (2014) found that several studies identified that emotional support of foster carers was reliant on the foster carer’s relationship with the child welfare system but that this could also be a source of conflict, rather than emotional support.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring social networks in foster caring: The mockingbird family in Australia

Jones,

Patmisari,

McLaren

et al. 2024

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

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In their care of children and young people, foster carers report experiencing social isolation and a lack of support. This study examines the social network experiences of Australian foster carers who are members of Mockingbird Family. While well established in the United States and United Kingdom, Mockingbird Family was introduced to Australia offering a new approach to address the unique challenges of foster caring for vulnerable children and young people. The model geographically networks 6–10 foster care households in a ‘constellation’ with a central ‘hub home provider’ tasked with providing information, support, and respite care. This study employed a cross-sectional explanatory sequential mixed methods approach to investigate social connections and supports in the first four Australian Mockingbird Family constellations. A social network tool was used to survey participants ( n = 27) and two focus groups ( n = 20) to gather their experiences. Analysis found the highest mean social network connections with people from within their own Mockingbird Family constellations. Three measures of centrality were used indegree, betweenness and closeness, to report the connections and role of members within each constellation. Comparing constellations at different stages of maturity, the hub home provider was consistently ranked with high betweenness centrality as the bridge. In the longer-running constellations, the hub home provider was ranked with high indegree centrality or the primary source of advice or expert support. This indicated micro-network evolution that may potentially result in reduced reliance on statutory and other formal system supports over time. Changes to micro-dynamics in social support within constellations were explained qualitatively through three themes: leadership and expertise, information diffusion and communication, and trust and familiarity. Mockingbird Family was found to provide social connections and support networks amongst foster carers, indicating the model’s capacity to strengthen supports to carers thereby strengthening the immediate environment of children and young people in care.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring social networks in foster caring: The mockingbird family in Australia

Jones,

Patmisari,

McLaren

et al. 2024

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

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“…Adult friendships continue to function as a source of emotional or instrumental support while coping with all the new roles and responsibilities added to one's life during the adulthood period in the life cycle. Although friendships decrease in terms of quantity in adulthood, the nature of the relationships gets deeper (Çakmak & Yavuz Güler, 2020; Lee, 2022). The aim of the mixed research conducted by the researchers (Çakmak & Yavuz Güler, 2020) with a total of 1000 people between the ages of 18–65 and a total of 20 people aged between 20 and 62 for the qualitative part was to understand how the friendship relations of adult individuals differ according to gender.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Better neighborhood experience and neighborhood friendship have been shown to improve the mental health of older adults (Gan et al, 2021). In his study comparing young (20–30 years old) and old (50–70 years old) in the context of friendship, Lee (2022) discussed friendship types according to social focus and shown the differences in age groups.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Never walk alone on the way: Friendships of emerging adults

Güler

Çakmak

Bayraktar

2022

Personal Relationships

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This study aimed to comprehend how individuals in emerging adulthood characterize friendship. This study adopted a qualitative design to obtain in-depth information about the elements in emerging adults' definitions of friendships. The study was conducted with university samples and non-university samples. As a result of the study, the elements in the friendship definitions of the participants were grouped under five themes: behavioral processes; cognitive processes; emotional processes, structural characteristics, and distinctive features. Accordingly, sharing, fun, assistance, boundaries, and altruism sub-codes were categorized under behavioral processes; while trust, compatibility, commitment-fidelity, and respect sub-codes were categorized under cognitive processes. Intimacy, requirement sub-codes were categorized under affective processes and openness, homogeneity, heterogeneity, and reciprocity sub-codes were grouped under Statement of Relevance: With this research which explored the in-depth relationships of the emerging adults, we have reached the following definitions of emerging adults specific to this period; "developmental support," "unconditional acceptance," "closeness," "isolation-vigilant," "life partner," "network" and "effects of marriage." We believe that it will benefit the specialists working with emerging adults to develop a wider understanding of the meanings, expectations, and needs that individuals attribute to friendship. This will increase the quantity and quality of psychotherapies, training, and intervention programs that will be developed.

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