Friendships are a source of stimulation, pleasure, and support. Making friends later in life is important. The FRIEND consortium, with European partners is therefor developping a Toolkit to foster Friendships in Later Life. With theory and various exercises. This project is a follow-up of the Online Friendship Course developed by Tamara Bouwman (Vrije Universiteit) and the Friendship Enrichment Program developed by Nan Stevens (Radboud Universiteit).
Three questions for researcher Tamara Bouwman
We are now have the opportunity to ask Tamara Bouwman about the importance of friendship and is it something you can learn?
Tell us about the Online Friendship Course
‘Nan Stevens (founder of the Friendship Enrichment Program) and I developed an Online Friendship Course: a self-guided online program (oFEP) for men and women over 50 years of age. You can join from home on your own computer or tablet. It is based on the successful group course. The course consists of an introduction and two times five weekly lessons, each lesson lasts about half an hour to an hour. The lessons consist of background information about friendship and exercises to get started. It teaches you practical things for daily interaction with your friends and family.’
What are the results of participating in the course?
‘The online program encourages participants to become aware of their own social needs and desires, to analyze their existing social network, to reflect on their expectations of friendships, to improve the quality of existing friendships, and to develop new friendships. Making and maintaining contact is definitely something you can learn! People can strengthen what they are good at. We stimulate them to restore existing contacts.We know that the course works and it is useful to people.’
What is your view on the new Toolkit?
‘Making and maintaining contact is something you can learn. So I am happy the Friend consortium is developing a Toolkit to foster Friendships in Later Life. The combination of online and offline as you propose seems like a good idea! There is now a lot of research showing that blended learning works very well. Also, research shows that expectations in friendship are very important. So this is something that you should definitely address in the course.’
Note: The current Friend Project is a follow-up of the (online)Friendship Enrichment Program. The FRIEND consortium is developping a Toolkit to foster Friendships in Later Life. More information on Friendproject.eu
About
Tamara Bouwman (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Vilans) is a passionate researcher with a broad social science background and specific interest in applied research. She likes to translate acquired knowledge into broader applications in healthcare and welfare. She has a background in social sciences and extensive experience with research into loneliness and loneliness interventions. She published her dissertation ‘Coping in Loneliness Interventions: The online Friendship Enrichment program for adults aged 50 and older’.
