IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v23y2022i6d10.1007_s10902-022-00502-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unique Ways in Which the Quality of Friendships Matter for Life Satisfaction

Author

Listed:
  • Victor Kaufman

    (University of California, Los Angeles)

  • Anthony Rodriguez

    (University of California, Los Angeles
    RAND Corporation)

  • Lisa C. Walsh

    (University of California, Los Angeles)

  • Edward Shafranske

    (Pepperdine University)

  • Shelly P. Harrell

    (Pepperdine University)

Abstract

The quality of individuals’ social relationships consistently predicts greater well-being. But little is known about the relative importance of different relationship types for life satisfaction, including the relative importance of friendships compared to other types of relationships. Some have theorized that one intimate relationship is all you need. However, romantic partners, family, and friends may contribute uniquely or interactively to well-being. The current study assessed life satisfaction and relationship satisfaction in survey data collected from a large, diverse sample of respondents. Satisfaction with each type of relationship was significantly and independently associated with life satisfaction, over and above other variables in the model. Friendship (not family) interacted with intimate relationships: when respondents were highly satisfied with their intimate relationships, they were happy with their lives regardless of friendship quality. But when they were unhappy with their intimate relationships, they were only happy with their lives if they had good friends.

Suggested Citation

  • Victor Kaufman & Anthony Rodriguez & Lisa C. Walsh & Edward Shafranske & Shelly P. Harrell, 2022. "Unique Ways in Which the Quality of Friendships Matter for Life Satisfaction," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 2563-2580, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:23:y:2022:i:6:d:10.1007_s10902-022-00502-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-022-00502-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10902-022-00502-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-022-00502-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benjamin Caunt & John Franklin & Nina Brodaty & Henry Brodaty, 2013. "Exploring the Causes of Subjective Well-Being: A Content Analysis of Peoples’ Recipes for Long-Term Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 475-499, April.
    2. Glenn Milligan & Martha Cooper, 1985. "An examination of procedures for determining the number of clusters in a data set," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 50(2), pages 159-179, June.
    3. Katherine L. Fiori & Toni C. Antonucci & Kai S. Cortina, 2006. "Social Network Typologies and Mental Health Among Older Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 61(1), pages 25-32.
    4. Sheung-Tak Cheng & Kin-Kit Li & Edward M. F. Leung & Alfred C. M. Chan, 2011. "Social Exchanges and Subjective Well-being: Do Sources of Positive and Negative Exchanges Matter?," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 66(6), pages 708-718.
    5. Katherine L. Fiori & Jacqui Smith & Toni C. Antonucci, 2007. "Social Network Types Among Older Adults: A Multidimensional Approach," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 62(6), pages 322-330.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Julie A. Blake & Hannah J. Thomas & Anita M. Pelecanos & Jake M. Najman & James G. Scott, 2024. "Attachment in Young Adults and Life Satisfaction at Age 30: A Birth Cohort Study," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 19(4), pages 1549-1568, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ann W. Nguyen, 2017. "Variations in Social Network Type Membership Among Older African Americans, Caribbean Blacks, and Non-Hispanic Whites," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 72(4), pages 716-726.
    2. Sónia Guadalupe & Henrique Testa Vicente, 2022. "Types of Personal Social Networks of Older Adults in Portugal," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 445-466, April.
    3. Ivaylo Vassilev & Anne Rogers & Christian Blickem & Helen Brooks & Dharmi Kapadia & Anne Kennedy & Caroline Sanders & Sue Kirk & David Reeves, 2013. "Social Networks, the ‘Work’ and Work Force of Chronic Illness Self-Management: A Survey Analysis of Personal Communities," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-13, April.
    4. Carly Roman & Christopher R. Beam & Elizabeth Zelinski, 2022. "Psychosocial Outcomes of Age Integration Status: Do Age-Integrated Social Networks Benefit Older Adults?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-15, September.
    5. Howard Litwin & Michal Levinsky & Ella Schwartz, 2020. "Network type, transition patterns and well-being among older Europeans," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 241-250, June.
    6. Li, Ting & Zhang, Yanlong, 2015. "Social network types and the health of older adults: Exploring reciprocal associations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 59-68.
    7. Shiovitz-Ezra, Sharon & Litwin, Howard, 2012. "Social network type and health-related behaviors: Evidence from an American national survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 901-904.
    8. Haosen Sun & Markus Schafer, 2022. "Close ties, near and far away: patterns and predictors of geographic network range among older Europeans," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 699-716, September.
    9. Li, Ting & Yang, Yang Claire & Zhang, Yanlong, 2018. "Culture, economic development, social-network type, and mortality: Evidence from Chinese older adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 23-30.
    10. Zeev Hille & Hannes Ulrich & Vera Maren Straßburger & Pichit Buspavanich, 2024. "Social networks of men who have sex with men engaging in chemsex in Germany: differences in social resources and sexual health," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
    11. Liping Ye & Xinping Zhang, 2019. "Social Network Types and Health among Older Adults in Rural China: The Mediating Role of Social Support," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-14, January.
    12. Liu, Pei-chen Barry & Hansen, Mark & Mukherjee, Avijit, 2008. "Scenario-based air traffic flow management: From theory to practice," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 42(7-8), pages 685-702, August.
    13. Li, Pai-Ling & Chiou, Jeng-Min, 2011. "Identifying cluster number for subspace projected functional data clustering," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(6), pages 2090-2103, June.
    14. Liping Ye & Xinping Zhang, 2021. "The association mechanism between social network types and health‐related behaviours among the elderly in rural Hubei Province, China," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3), pages 826-846, May.
    15. Zins, Andreas H. & Ponocny, Ivo, 2022. "On the importance of leisure travel for psychosocial wellbeing," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    16. Alessandra Cepparulo & Antonello Zanfei, 2019. "The diffusion of public eServices in European cities," Working Papers 1904, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2019.
    17. Philipp Schulz & Julian Schulte & Sven Raube & Hala Disouky & Christian Kandler, 2018. "The Role of Leisure Interest and Engagement for Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1135-1150, April.
    18. Vonneilich, Nico & Lüdecke, Daniel & von dem Knesebeck, Olaf, 2020. "Educational inequalities in self-rated health and social relationships – analyses based on the European Social Survey 2002-2016," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    19. Young Bum Kim & Seung Hee Lee, 2022. "Gender Differences in Correlates of Loneliness among Community-Dwelling Older Koreans," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-11, June.
    20. Noelia Caceres & Luis M. Romero & Francisco J. Morales & Antonio Reyes & Francisco G. Benitez, 2018. "Estimating traffic volumes on intercity road locations using roadway attributes, socioeconomic features and other work-related activity characteristics," Transportation, Springer, vol. 45(5), pages 1449-1473, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:23:y:2022:i:6:d:10.1007_s10902-022-00502-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.