Friendships and Social Connections (Part 1): Benefits

Friendships are the social connections that enrich your life with conversation, comfort, laughter, support, and encouragement. While friendships can also come with disappointment and conflict, good ones help to buffer the effects of setbacks and stress and help you navigate life's challenges.

Some friendships seem to endure with ease. Some fall away as circumstances change—as people move, change jobs, start families, divorce, or shift priorities. Most take some effort to maintain. Making new friends, especially as an adult, can be difficult; however, maintaining good friendships and making new ones is worth the effort—for your quality of life, happiness, and health.

How do friendships and social connections improve your life?

Many of the benefits of friendships and supportive social connections are obvious. They make you feel good and help you through life's ups and downs. Other benefits, especially the powerful effect of social connections on people's physical health, have been discovered through research. Below are some of the ways friendships help to improve your quality of life.

Life Satisfaction and Enjoyment

• Friendships fill a basic human need for company and companionship—for a sense of belonging. Friends are people who talk with one another, share thoughts and experiences, and have meals or coffee together. Without these social connections, people are susceptible to feelings of loneliness and isolation.
• Good friends make you happier. Friends who listen to, validate the feelings of, and enjoy each other's company are happier. That's true when they are together, but it also carries over as an emotional lift and buffer when they are apart.
• Friendships improve your self-confidence and sense of self-worth. Having friends who appreciate you for who you are and offer praise and reassurance when you're feeling unsure of yourself, strengthens your self-esteem and confidence. Friends like these help you value yourself as a unique individual and remind you how much you have to offer.

Support and Resilience

• Friends offer emotional support. They listen, show empathy, and tell you they care. This is especially important when you are feeling down or lonely.
• Friends challenge negative thinking with different perspectives. They can help you see things from different angles and steer you away from unrealistic and unhelpful patterns of thought.
• Friends provide guidance and help you make decisions in ways that are true to your best self.
• Friends help you cope with tough times—with loss, illness, and hardship. They strengthen your resilience, helping you weather the inevitable down times in life and bounce back.
• Good friends push you to be your best. They encourage you, challenge you, and remind you of your strengths.
• Friends give you the opportunity to help and be compassionate. Caring about other people and demonstrating that care not only helps your friends, it helps you. It contributes to your emotional strength and resilience and helps you keep your own worries in perspective.

Help and Information

• Friends provide practical help. That might include help with a move, backup child care, or a home-cooked meal when you're sick or overwhelmed.
• Friends share information. They alert you to job and learning opportunities, share tips from their own experience, and help you navigate new challenges.

Physical and Mental Health

• People with supportive social networks have less stress. That may be because they don't feel lonely as often or because of the calming, reassuring influence friends have.
• Friends encourage healthy behavior. If you have friends who have healthy eating, exercise, and spending habits, you're more likely to adopt those habits as well. It can work the other way, too, though. If you're trying to lose weight, quit smoking, or address a drinking problem, you'll have a better chance of success if you spend time with people who share those goals.
• Having friends can reduce your risk of depression. Several studies have found that the strength of friendships and social networks is linked to lower incidence of depressive symptoms.
• Supportive social connections can improve heart health. People with strong social connections are significantly less likely to experience heart attacks or die from heart disease, according to separate, long-term studies. One reason may be the association of friendships and social support with lower levels of stress.
• The strength of a person's social networks has been linked with other positive health outcomes, too. These include reduced risks of diabetes, high blood pressure, and stroke. It can also lead to a longer life. Having friends and a strong social support network has been found to be as powerful an influence on longevity as exercise and not smoking.

Sources

Amati, V., Meggiolaro, S., Rivellini, G., & Zaccarin, S. (2018, May 4). Social relations and life satisfaction: The role of friends. Genus, 74(1), 7.

Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T.B., & Layton, J.B. (2010, July 27). Social relationships and mortality risk: A meta-analytic review. PLoS Medicine, 7(7), e1000316.

Miller, A. (2014, January). Friends wanted: New research by psychologists uncovers the health risks of loneliness and the benefits of strong social connections. Monitor on Psychology, 45(1), 54. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Retrieved January 4, 2024, from https://www.apa.org

Woolston, C. (2019, December 31). Health benefits of friendship. HealthDay News. New York: ScoutNews LLC.