The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center

by Rhaina Cohen

Friendship plays a significant role in the mental and physical well-being of older adults, and several studies suggest that friendship plays a more significant role than marriage. A study from 1987 found that different types of relationships affect health differently depending on people’s ages. People under sixty were at greater risk of dying earlier if they weren’t married. But that wasn’t the case for people over sixty; close relationships with friends and relatives had more sway than marriage. A study published thirty years later, based on a survey of hundreds of thousands of people, similarly found that friendships become more predictive of mortality as people age and marriage relatively less so. People who valued friendship were healthier and happier across their lives, and those effects were particularly strong for older adults. By reducing loneliness, friendships ward off the host of negative physical and mental health effects that cascade from loneliness.