Relationships

Psychologist Susan Pinker’s recent book, The Village Effect, marshals original field research with psychological theories and evidence to arrive at a singular conclusion: Face-to-face social interactions are probably the most determinative factors in whether you live a long life. Pinker, a journalist and developmental psychologist, has explored the reasons that…

Adult siblings, whether close or estranged, are often drawn together when their aging parents require help with housing, medical care or finances. Working together can renew and strengthen bonds between the siblings, or it can create conflict and stress, as rivalries from the past resurface. For example, The New York…

Keeping in touch with friends often requires effort and attention, especially if distance or divergent interests threaten to separate you. What happens, then, when a friend is diagnosed with dementia? Is it possible, and preferable, to continue the friendship, especially as your friend’s cognitive abilities decline? According to new research…

Following divorce, women are often in more a more vulnerable financial place than they had formally been. Many are not properly informed about benefits available to them from their former spouse despite the divorce, and this is especially troublesome if retirement is looming. For example, consider Social Security. Did you…

Friendships often begin and endure because of common interests and experiences. But does it matter if your friends are all the same age as you? Can you be friends and enjoy the companionship of someone much younger or much older? Increasingly, intergenerational friendships (or “age-gap” friendships, as British writer Marianne…

Charlie and Lois O’Brien perfectly fit the definition of “love bugs.” They’ve been married for 55 years, have travelled the world together and work in the same field: entomology. So bugs are their business, and their business has been extraordinarily successful. Now in their 80s, the two have collected over…