Friendships are important at every stage in life, but your BFF may be good for your brain, especially as you age. According to a new study, women who stay close with friends into middle-age are less likely to be stressed out and it all comes down to communication. And it turns out, older women have the advantage here.
Research from the University of Illinois finds women of a certain age have an easier time communicating with strangers than younger ladies, and that positively affects stress levels. While the women between 18 and 25 years old could communicate more efficiently with their friends by using fewer words, they struggled to communicate with strangers. But the group over age 62 could easily communicate with both strangers and friends and that ability to communicate actually helps them by limiting the release of stress hormones like cortisol.
The study looked at the differences between talking with friends and strangers in both groups of women and results show cortisol levels are consistently lower when chatting with friends. Study author Michelle Rodrigues explains, “In order to deal with stress, women can befriend female peers.” She calls it a “tend-and-befriend” response, which is different from the traditional “fight-or-flight” response to stress that’s considered more masculine. “Familiar partners and friendship buffer stress,” she says, “and that’s preserved with age.”
HT: Study Finds