Intertwined Friendships: How Older Women Navigated Couple Friendships and Individual Friendships Alongside Romantic Partners

Abstract

This study examined how older women’s friendships were intertwined with their opposite-sex romantic partners, and their friendships, via interviews using a constructivist, grounded theory approach. Participants (N = 19) were women from the Northeastern United States, had at least some college, and all were non-Hispanic White. Theoretical coding led to two main themes: Friendship Level: Couple Versus Individual and Conflicts and Differences: Gendered Dynamics. Within Friendship Level, couple activities such as vacations and dinners were mentioned as key activities, along with the women’s role in crafting couples’ friendships. Reasons why friendships remained separate were also discussed. For Conflicts and Differences, women talked about how they had more friends than their romantic partners and that their romantic partners’ friendships were largely work-based. Women also discussed instances in which a romantic partner misbehaved. These findings have implications for how romantic partners navigate friendships together.