The Relationship of Age to Network Size, Multiplexity, and Proximity to Alters in the Western U.S.

• In Event: 349 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Social Networks and Social Isolation

Abstract

The negative relationship between personal network size and age is one of the most robust findings in social gerontology. We evaluate the relationship of age and other socio-demographic variables to properties of personal networks using samples of individuals residing in the rural western United States and the city of Los Angeles. We test hypotheses that age is negatively associated with degree on six different relations and that network multiplexity is positively associated with age, and examine the relationship between age and spatial proximity to alters. For both rural and urban populations we find a non-monotone relationship between age and numbers of core discussants and emergency contacts, with rural populations also showing non-monotone relationships for social activity partners, emergency contacts, and kin. These non-monotone relations show a peak in expected degree at midlife, followed by an eventual decline. Age is positively associated with distance to non-household alters for the rural population, although residential tenure is associated with shorter ego-alter distances in both rural and urban settings. Additionally, age is negatively associated with network multiplexity for both populations. Although personal network size ultimately declines with age, we find that increases for some relations extend well into late-midlife and most elders still maintain numerous contacts across diverse relations. The evidence we present suggests that older people tap into a wider variety of different network members for different types of relations than do younger people. This is true even for populations in rural settings, for whom immediate access to potential alters is more limited.

Authors

• Emily J Smith, University of California-Irvine

• Christopher Steven Marcum, National Institutes of Health

• Adam Michael Boessen, University of California-Irvine

• Zack W. Almquist, University of Minnesota

• John R. Hipp, University of California-Irvine

• Nicholas N Nagle, University of Tennessee-Knoxville