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Published on: November 19, 2015
Social relations and life satisfaction: the role of friends
Viviana Amati1, Silvia Meggiolaro2, Giulia Rivellini3
11Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, ETH, Weinbergstr.109, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Social capital is defined as the individual's pool of social resources found in his/her personal network. A recent study on Italians living as couples has shown that friendship relationships, beyond those within an individual's family, are an important source of support. Here, we used data from Aspects of Daily Life, the Italian National Statistical Institute's 2012 multipurpose survey, to analyze the relation between friendship ties and life satisfaction. Our results show that friendship, in terms of intensity (measured by the frequency with which individuals see their friends) and quality (measured by the satisfaction with friendship relationships), is positively associated to life satisfaction.
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