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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Nearly one in every four Americans has no close confidant, according to a study that found that the average person's circle of close friends has shrunk considerably in the last two decades.
The study, published Friday in the American Sociological Review, found that Americans' social contacts are focusing less on neighbors and more "on the very strong bonds of the nuclear family."
"The evidence shows that Americans have fewer confidants and those ties are also more family-based than they used to be," said Lynn Smith-Lovin, a sociology professor at Duke University and one of the study's authors.
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