Who Makes You Happier? Friends of Family?

Changes in the social structures in society over the past century have prompted researchers to investigate the relationship between the quality of friendships with health as well as the links between the family and well-being. And it turns out that for many people, friendships provide vital emotional support for people of all ages, and in some cases, superseding those relationships with family members.

Research from Michigan State University has shown that people who had supportive friendships were actually healthier with reported lower levels of stress as compared to those with unsupportive friendships. That sounds straightforward enough but what is also interesting from the findings is that the family had less of an impact on an individual's well-being. William Chopik who investigated this area believed that this could be due to that fact that "...you can say things to friends and they are less judgmental. There is a distance there that provides a level of honesty.”

References:

• Michigan State University: Associations among relational values, support, health, and well-being across the adult lifespan
• The Guardian: Do friends make you happier than family?