Friends and optimism

Friends may be the key to being optimistic, especially for middle-aged women.

Researchers looked at men and women between the ages of 45 and 55, and found women were much more likely to have a strong social support network of close friends.

The most optimistic women spend about six hours a day socially interacting with people, but time spent with girlfriends was most influential.

It’s not the number of friends a woman had that was important.

The most optimistic women had an inner circle of four to 12 close friends.