[Friendships in middle and older adulthood: the long arm of early childhood experiences].

In this study, direct associations between recalled parent-child relations and adult friendships and a mediation of this relationship by personality characteristics were examined. Furthermore, the contribution of the personality characteristics openness and agreeableness to friendship involvement in different phases of life was investigated. Data from 392 middle aged (43-46 years) and 345 older participants (61-64 years) in the first wave of the Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study of Adult Development (ILSE) were used for structural equation modeling. Results show that the relation between recalled mother-child relationship and friendship involvement in old adults is mediated by agreeableness. Recalled father-child relationship was associated with friendships in both age groups, independent of personality characteristics. Data support the hypothesis that openness contributes to friendship involvement in middle age, while agreeableness contributes to friendship involvement in old age.