Rebecca G. Adams

Education: PhD and MA, Sociology, University of Chicago; BA, Sociology with Honors, Trinity College, Hartford, CT. Dr. Adams has been at UNCG since 1983 and a professor since 1999. She has received many honors, including the UNCG Senior Alumni Teaching Excellence Award in 2003, and currently serves as Associate Provost for Planning and Assessment. Research interests include Friendship, Gerontology, and Qualitative Methods.

There are 58 included publications by Rebecca G. Adams :

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
After Jerry’s Death: Achieving Continuity in Deadhead Identity and Community 2013 1370 Fan bases are often national or even global in scope with individual members separated by great distances. In the past, it would have been challenging for fans to form communities including people who did not live in the same geographic location, but...
Aging well with friends and family. 1995 12657 Aging encourages people to enhance their friend and family relationships. In general, the elderly tend to have more heterogeneity in relationships as they grow older. They depend on these relationships for instrumental, financial and emotional suppor...
Attitudes of Decision Makers Toward Adult Day Care. 1988 2677 There is a growing body of literature on adult day care, but there appear to be no studies of those who make decisions about older adults’participation. This article begins to fill this gap. The results suggest several directions for entrepreneurs an...
Baby Boomer Friendships. 1998 4469 More than a little help from their large networks of friends? Two researchers speculate about their own cohort in old age. Baby boomers will begin entering old age in 2011. They will be the largest and most diverse cohort ever to experience this life...
Becoming an International and Interdisciplinary Journal. 2007 836 Since its inception, the various Editors and Associate Editors of Personal Relationships have strived to achieve its vision as an interdisciplinary and international journal. The team that oversaw the review process for the articles published in this...
Building a life note-by-note: music and the life course 2018 1238 Music is an omnipresent component of many people's lives. On an individual level it is used to set moods, mark milestones, and connect to one's personal history. At a collective level music marks the concerns of cultural heritage, national holidays a...
Celebrating Personal Relationships. 2007 1809 Like the articles published in other issues of Volume 14 of Personal Relationships, those published in this issue collectively reflect my editorial team’s commitments to theory development, contextualized research, and the journal’s interdisciplinary...
Church Conservatism and Services for the Elderly. 1988 3609 The local church has traditionally provided services to the elderly. During this century, the role of government in human services has grown and partially replaced that of local churches. Re-cent reductions in government spending on human services, h...
A Collection of Near-Death Research Readings: Scientific Inquiries into the Experiences of Persons Near Physical Death, ed. by Craig R. Lundahl. 1987 1387 Book reviewed in this article: A Collection of Near-Death Research Readings: Scientijic Inquiries Into the Experiences of Persons Near Physical Death. Craig R. Lundahl (ed.), Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1982. 240 pp.
Comments on Relationship Research in a New Millennium. 2004 780 Lately personal relationship researchers have been paying more attention to the impact of social structural and cultural context on personal relationships. As a sociologist, I am hoping that this trend continues and develops further. Two specifi...
Definitions of Friendship in the Third Age: Age, Gender, and Study Location Effects. 2000 19291 Friendship is not institutionalized in American society; hence, perceptions of it vary. Rather than studying sources of this variation, most scholars ignore the complexity, bemoan the difficulty it causes in analysis, or eliminate it. We examined the...
Editing Personal Relationships. 2009 2380 This issue is the last my editorial team will produce. Lorne Campbell and his associate editors have been receiving new submissions since June 1, 2008, and the next issue will be filled with manuscripts they have processed since that time. Soon after...
Emerging Trends in Family Caregiving Using the Life Course Perspective: Preparing Health Educators for an Aging Society 2016 3642 Background: As life expectancy and morbidity related to chronic disease increase, the baby boomers will be called upon to provide care to aging members of their family or to be care recipients themselves. Purpose: Through the theoretical lens of the ...
Emotional Closeness and Physical Distance Between Friends: Implications for Elderly Women Living in Age-Segregated and Age-Integrated Settings 1986 4502 The author discusses the need for a better theoretical understanding of friendship in order for its role in the lives of elderly people to be understood. The applicability to friendship of Simmel's approach to the study of social relationships is out...
Examining Romantic Relationships. 2009 2220 All of the articles included in this issue examine romantic relationships. Although it was not intended, these articles therefore comprise a de facto special issue on this topic. Let me be perfectly clear: I did not hold back related articles in orde...
Factors Underlying the Structure of Older Adult Friendship Networks. 1998 4686 This paper examines the structure of older adult friendship networks and how the immediate social environment in which they are embedded shapes them. Data were a probability sample (N = 65) of the residents of Greensboro, North Carolina, aged 55 year...
Family Caregiver Identity: A Literature Review 2015 6957 Background: Despite the multitude of available resources, family caregivers of those with chronic disease continually underutilize support services to cope with the demands of caregiving. Several studies have linked self-identification as a caregiver...
Final report from the Masthead Editor of Personal Relationships. 2009 805 My editorial team‘s term is grinding to a halt. Personal Relationships (PR) 16:3 (September) is in production and 16.4 is almost ready to submit. In addition to the 10 articles that have been accepted or will soon be accepted to appear in my editoria...
Friendship and Happiness in the Third Age 2015 2066 This chapter examines the research related to only one of the many potential hypotheses derived from Havighurst’s (1961) statement regarding successful aging—i.e., that friendship and happiness are positively related and thus the role of friendship p...
Friendship in Later Life: A Research Agenda 2019 2183 Friendship is a relationship that can endure across the entire lifespan, serving a vital role forsustaining social connectedness in late life when other relationships may become unavailable.This article begins with a description of the importance of ...
Friendships Through the Life Course: Oral Biographies in Old Age, by Sarah H. Matthews. 1987 2137 S. H. Matthews, Friendships Through the Life Course: Oral Biographies in Old Age. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1986. 176 pp. $24.50 hardcover, $12.50 softcover. This book is an important contribution to a growing area of inquiry-the sociology of friendsh...
Functional Status and Church Participation of the Elderly: Theoretical and Practical Implications 1988 2668 This paper shows how functional impairment on five dimensions, physical health, mental health, economic re-sources, ability to perform the activities of daily living, and social resources, affected church participation of the elderly in a rural count...
The Future of Personal Relationships. Spring 2005 2005 1242 As of June 1, I will begin a three-year term as Editor of Personal Relationships. I am honoured to have been appointed and am looking forward to a productive term building on the fine work of Sue Sprecher, her team, and their predecessors. Sue a...
Gender-of-author differences in study design of older adult friendship surveys. 2006 2721 This research extends literature documenting gender differences in choice of quantitative or qualitative methods by examining whether men and women make different decisions regarding study design within one type of quantitative method—survey research...
Inciting Sociological Thought by Studying the Deadhead Community: Engaging Publics in Dialogue 1998 7609 We need to pay more attention to the process of being sociologists and less attention to rates of productivity. To support this statement, I present a case study of the processes in which I have been involved while studying Deadheads, fans of the for...
An Integrative Conceptual Framework for Friendship Research. 1994 17358 In light of the increase in the number and rigor of studies on adult friendship and the tendency of kin and neighbor relationships to have become more structurally similar to friendship, this is a crucial juncture at which to pause and assess what we...
Interactive Motifs and Processes in Old Age Friendship 2017 1973 This chapter focuses on the connections between interactive motifs and dyadic and network structure and process. Cognitive, affective, and behavioral motifs reveal individuals’ propensities to think, feel, and act in certain ways across situations an...
A Lifetime of Relationships Mediated by Technology 2004 1379 Although recent technological developments have made transportation and communication faster, more efficient, and more accessible, relationship theorists and researchers have been slow to adapt. This chapter outlines a synthetic dynamic framework for...
The Long Strange Trip Continues: Aging Deadheads 2014 1104 The community surrounding the Grateful Dead, a San Francisco-based psychedelic rock band that had played together for thirty years when its lead guitarist Jerry Garcia died in 1995, still persists. For many Deadheads, as these fans are called, member...
The Long-term Evolution of the Family Structure of Teenage and Older Mothers. 1982 6643 Research into the evolution of the, family structure is important in understanding the consequences of teenage motherhood. In this longitudinal study of black, urban mothers in Woodlawn, a Chicago community, we compare 15 years of family evolution of...
A Look at Friendship and Aging. 1986 7670 A need exists for a better understanding of friendship and its role in the lives of old people. This article gives a selected overview of some of the research findings on aging and friendship, suggests some directions for future research, and discuss...
The Old Hippie and The College Graduate 2010 329 There was once a young man whose mother said to him when he graduated from college, "My son, now that you have finished your studies, the time is right for you to get a job! I will give you some money to help you get started and to purchase a vehicle...
Patterns of Network Change: A Longitudinal Study of Friendships of Elderly Women. 1987 5838 Old age is a period during which people have an opportunity to alter their friendship patterns. The data were in-depth interviews and observations of white, non-married, elderly women who lived in a middle-class suburb in 1981 and mail questionnaires...
People Would Talk: Normative Barriers to Cross-sex Friendships for Elderly Women. 1985 6458 A normative explanation for elderly women's lack of male friends is developed by showing that cross-sex friendship is defined as romance, that there are norms inhibiting romance during old age, and that other norms encourage them to reject potential ...
Perceptions of Social Support Availability and Coping Behaviors Among Gay Men with HIV. 2001 4601 Analyzing face-to-face, semistructured interviews, we discuss how perceptions. of social support availability are formed among gay men coping with HIV. Experiences of receiving support increased perceived availability for specific types of support fr...
Placing Personal Relationships Research in Context. 2007 1667 The articles in this issue are published in the order in which they were submitted. In light of our editorial commitment to international and interdisciplinary scholarship (see Editor’s Preface, Personal Relationships, Volume 14, Issue 1), the member...
Problems with Friends in Old Age. 1998 3937 Although many studies of friendship support exist, little information is available on friendship's negative dimensions. Guided by a conceptual framework encompassing structure, process, and phase elements of friendship patterns, we explored troubleso...
Rachel A. Rosenfeld, 1948-2002, SSS Past President. 2003 2972 “Rachel brought an abundance of joy, a spirit of inclusiveness, and great professional stature to the SSS presidency, the scholarly community that constitutes the SSS, and to the profession. She has left a legacy that will continue to inspire and hum...
Reflections on the Importance of SSS to the Discipline and its Members 2003 1167 Way back in 2001 when Pat Martin was President-Elect, she asked me to write a piece for TSS reflecting on what the Southern Sociological Society means to me. I am just now getting around to it. I realize that I am at risk of getting a reputation for ...
Report from the Editor of Personal Relationships. Fall 2007 2007 1536 By now you should have received the first three issues of Personal Relationships (Volume 14, Issues 1, 2, and 3) produced by my editorial team (Associate Editors: Susan Boon, Psychology, University of Calgary, Canada; Mario Mikulincer, Psycholog...
Report from the Editor of Personal Relationships. Spring 2007 2007 623 As incredible as it seems, at least to me, I have completed more than half of my active term as Editor of Personal Relationships (PR) and my team’s first issue has still not been published! By the time you receive this newsletter, you will have surel...
Report from the Masthead Editor of Personal Relationships. Fall 2008 2008 842 As you know, my editorial team and I are no longer accepting new submissions, but we will continue to put together issues and to serve as the masthead editorial team through the end of 2009 (Volume 16, Issue 4). We will continue to accept papers as t...
Report from the Masthead Editor of Personal Relationships. Spring 2008 2008 650 As you know, Lorne Campbell will be succeeding me as Editor of Personal Relationships. I am delighted he has agreed to serve IARR in this important way. We have already begun to plan the transition, and I look forward to working with him over the nex...
Report from the Masthead Editor of Personal Relationships. Spring 2009. 2009 826 As you know, my editorial team and I stopped receiving new submissions last June when Lorne Campbell became the new Editor of Personal Relationships, but we have continued to process the manuscripts we had already received and to serve as the Masthea...
A Report on Personal Relationships. Fall 2006 2006 842 I assumed the active Editorship of Personal Relationships (PR) on June 1, 2005. Since then, I have recruited six Associate Editors. Susan Boon (Psychology, University of Calgary, Canada), Mario Mikulincer (Psychology, Bar- Ilan University, Israe...
A Report on Personal Relationships: Report from the New Editorial Team of Personal Relationships. Spring 2006 2006 849 Since my last report on the status of Personal Relationships (PR) to Relationship Research News, our editorial team has grown. Rodney Cate (Emeritus, Family Studies, University of Arizona, United States), Catrin Finkenauer (Social Psychology, Fr...
A Report on Personal Relationships: Part 2. Fall 2005 2005 743 Since June 1, I have been serving as Editor of Personal Relationships, supported by an amazing, but still incomplete, team of Associate Editors: Susan Boon (Psychology, University of Calgary, Canada), Mario Mikulincer (Psychology, Bar-Ilan Unive...
Resources for Friendship Intervention 1993 2368 Programs affecting friendship patterns can be implemented at the individual, dyadic, network, immediate environment, community, or societal level. Literature specifically focused on friendship intervention is scarce. The relevance of other resources ...
Secondary Friendship Networks and Psychological Well-Being Among Elderly Women. 1986 3613 One of-the major issues in social gerontology is, and has been, the relationship between social integration and psychological well-being during old age. There are two major theories which predict opposite outcomes. Activity theory suggests that the a...
Soap Fans: Pursuing Pleasure and Making Plans in Everyday Life, by C. Lee Harrington & Denise D. Bielby. 1996 1870 Soap Fans: Pursuing Pleasure and Making Meaning in Everyday Life. By C. Lee Harrington and Denise D. Bielby. Temple University Press, 1995. 225 pp. Cloth, $49.95; paper, $19.95. Reviewer: REBECCA G. ADAMS, University of North Carolina at Greensboro ...
Sociology of Friendship 2007 8528 Traditionally, friendship has received little systematic attention from sociologists. The issue of social integration has of course been central to the discipline since its origins in the nineteenth century, but until recently friendship itself was r...
Stepping in the Right Direction. 2009 1915 Collectively, the articles published in this issue remind us of the advantages of studying a variety of types of relationships in a variety of cultural contexts. Although in the editor's preface to the last issue of Personal Relationships (Volume 16,...
Stigma and the Inappropriately Stereotyped: The Deadhead Professional. 2003 5547 The Grateful Dead, a North American rock band that stopped performing in 1995 after thirty years together, was as well known for its fans as it was for its music. Deadheads, as these fans are called, traveled from venue to venue to hear the band play...
Structural Predictors of Problematic Friendships in Later Life. 1998 1524 The purpose of this study was to examine the constraining and facilitating effects of social structural position (age, sex, race, class, financial sufficiency, and number of friends) on opportunities for friendship. We hypothesized that the greater t...
Studying Personal Relationships across the Lifespan. 2008 2280 This issue represents a celebration of the study of personal relationships across the lifespan. Whether using a sociological framework to study how the variation of social structural opportunities and constraints across the life course shapes social ...
Technological Influences on Social Ties Across the Lifespan 2011 2283 Keeping in contact with our friends and family members, which is vital for relationship maintenance, has never been easier. We can telephone, text, e-mail, instant message, comment on their Facebook wall or blog, and so forth. We know who is calling ...
Thinking Sociologically about Personal Relationships. 2008 2110 When my associate editors and I were discussing who would be our team’s second distinguished scholar, psychologist Susan Boon suggested Graham Allan, pointing out that he thinks “in bigger circles” than most personal relationship scholars and therefo...
Which Comes First: Poor Psychological Well-Being or Decreased Friendship Activity? 1988 6195 Research has shown there is a positive relationship between friendship activity and psychological well-being. The common interpretation of this correlation is that an increase in friendship activity improves psychological well-being. This article sho...