CLOSE FRIENDSHIPS AMONGST CHINESE WIDOWED ELDERLY""

Abstract

This is an exploratory study looking at the close friendships of Chinese widowed elderly. The aim is to understand their close friendship definitions, characteristics and functions as well as their development and maintenance. Face-to-face interviews are carried out with 20 Chinese widowed elderly and the PGC Morale scale administered. Close friends are viewed as important in the lives of the Chinese widowed elderly. The interviews revealed that friends are non-kin with attributes such as helpfulness, care and concern; with closer friends possessing these attributes in greater measure and intensity. Among the interviewees, cross-gender close friendships are very rare and there is an absence of inter-ethnic close friendships. From the findings, instrumental function as well as social-companionship function seems more important than emotional-expressive function. However, it should be noted that these 3 types of function are not-mutually exclusive, taking into consideration the dimension of 'content' as well as 'consequential' function It has also been found from this study that the development of close friendships and maintenance strategies are influenced by factors such as: mobility, proximity, housing environment, availability of time, common activities and interests, their attitude towards aging, past negative experience as well as other support network. This study concludes with implications of the findings. Recommendations are also made and discussed in the concluding chapter.