Is a romantic partner really all the support you need in a crisis?
When schedules get overwhelmed and life stress spikes, adult friendships are usually the first casualty. It is an easy rationalization: “I have my partner at home, so I do not really need to keep up with friends right now.” Yet evolving relationship science asks us to rethink this assumption. While the concept of “solidarity”—the emotional bonding, mutual aid, and shared norms that keep groups resilient—has long been studied in family and intergenerational contexts, researchers have begun investigating how friend solidarity operates among adults facing high-stress crises....