Best Friends Forever - Irene S. Levine [102]
APPENDIX A
ABOUT THE FRACTURED FRIENDSHIP SURVEY
The Fractured Friendship Survey was designed to be brief and easy to complete, with a mix of quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (open-ended) questions. Female respondents were asked to provide information about themselves, their friendships, and about one meaningful friendship in their lives that had ended.
Seven quantitative questions asked information about:
1. The number of women a respondent considered to be her “best” or “very close” friends;
2. Looking back at one such meaningful friendship that ended, how the respondent met that friend (at school, at work, as neighbors, through mutual friends or other);
3. The respondent’s perceptions of how the fractured friendship ended—her decision, her friend’s decision or a mutual one;
4. The approximate length of the fractured friendship—in terms of years and/or months;
5. The frequency of communication in that relationship;
6. The approximate number of hours spent communicating with the friend per week; and
7. The respondent’s chronological age when the friendship ended.
The heart of the survey consisted of seven open-ended questions designed to elicit information about each woman’s experience with a fractured friendship, including:
• What made the friendship special
• Her perception of why the friendship ended;
• The nature and duration of the emotional impact created by the loss;
• The effect of the loss upon other friendships;
• The respondent’s view about the meaning of a “best friend” relationship;
• Any experiences the respondent had or ideas she has now about renewing failed friendships;
• General advice about maintaining viable friendships
Finally, four optional questions asked for identifying information that was used to clarify ambiguous responses or follow up with lengthier interviews. These included: Name of the respondent, her age, her phone number, and her email address I designed the 18-item online Fractured Friendship survey using design and analysis software available on www.Survey Monkey.com . Volunteer respondents were recruited through notices I posted on Craig’s List ads (in several major cities); on the social networking sites Facebook and My Space; on writer forums to which I belong (www.ASJA.org , www.freelancesuccess.com); and on my own website (www.irenelevine.com) and my blog (www.fracturedfriendships.com also accessible at www.thefriendshipblog.com).
More than 1500 women responded to the survey between April 2007 and April 2009, with more than 85 percent of them completing all the questions. Some of the limitations of the survey:
• The sample was a convenience sample rather than a random one, so certain groups of women may have over- or under-represented compared to the general population, e.g., certain age, race or ethnic groups; lesbian and trans-gender women; women from different geographic locales.
• The survey was conducted online rather than in-person; online surveys have become a predominant form of survey research but its validity is still questioned.
• Individual women, rather than dyads (pairs) of friends responded, so the information may be biased and subjective.
• Much of the information solicited was retrospective, relying on the respondent’s memory of the past; memory is often selective and subject to change over time.
• Because the survey was conducted online, the results are biased by the digital divide; they are limited because they are heavily skewed towards women with Internet access
• On the other side of the coin, the study had several unique strengths:
• The anonymous nature of an online survey and the promise of confidentiality encouraged candor and openness among respondents.
• The open-ended questions, which were answered online, encouraged rich