Friends as a Source of Informal Support for Older Women with Physical Disabilities

This paper uses data from self-constructed social support networks and friendship-focused life reviews to examine the friendship support situations of a small group of older women with physical disabilities. The focus is on how the women have experienced and responded to the friendship changes that commonly occur in later life. Changes in both the form and content of friendship relationships and also in how form and content intermesh are examined. The general finding is of diverse but active involvement in response to the changes such that friends continue to make important support contributions. In some cases friendship support was found to be playing a major, even crucial, role in personal well-being.