Question: How many friends would you say you have?

Answer: Let's see. I have three friends. Is that enough?

Having friends--good enough friends or a sufficient number of
them--was important to the middle-class American women inter-
viewed for the Adult Women's Friendship Project. The testimony
of these women indicated that they wanted very much to have
either one close friend--a real confidante--or a few very good
friends, not just a circle of sociable companions. At the same time
they recognized the virtue of having a variety of acquaintances for
passing the time enjoyably and keeping themselves amused. Most
of them said that they put a good deal of stock in their friendships
and spent a considerable amount ot time, thought, and energy
cultivating them, whenever and if that was possible to do in the
course of their crowded schedules. Some spoke with real regret
about how little time they had to devote to their friends. "It is
frustrating," one woman commented, "to realize perfectly well
that you are missing out on something you could enjoy but every-
thing else seems to have to get done before you fit in some private
hour or so with a good friend." Another woman put it this way:
"I sort of feel it in my bones that I need to have friends for my
own well-being. That sounds selfish, I realize. But I have this

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