Korean Pre-elders' Friendship Experience and Happiness

Abstract

This study is aimed at concretizing Korean pre-elders’ friendship experience by examining the structural and functional aspects of friend networks, and finding out, combined with gender, how these characteristics affect happiness. To that end, a face-to-face interview was conducted with 1,652 men and women aged 50~69 living in urban cities, and the data was analyzed with ordered logit model. The major findings are as follows: First, pre-elders had on average 6.1 close friends, contacting with them at least once a month, and half of their friends were living within 1 hour range of their major transportation. Second, on the functions of friendship, pre-elders experienced fair amount of companionship, existence of confidants, and social stimuli from their friends. Third, for pre-elderly men, receiving social stimuli from friends had a positive impact on their happiness. But most of all, not having a spouse decreased their happiness significantly, suggesting that single pre-elder men population should be watched with care. Fourth, for pre-elderly women, the number of friends, living distance, and having a confidant boosted their happiness. This study explains the friendship experience of a vast population of pre-elders in Korean cities, and provides implications for the development of programs to fertilize a social network of the future elderly.