The Effect of Network Member's Health and Organizational Involvement on Ego's Mental and Physical Health Outcomes

• In Event: 447 - Section on Social Psychology Roundtable Session (co-sponsored with Section on Sociology of Emotions)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Social Relationships and Health

Abstract

Are the health outcomes and organizational involvement of your friends correlated with your well-being? How do characteristics of network members affect a focal person's mental and physical health outcomes? This question is especially interesting in older adults as social isolation is often thought to be a characterizing factor of old age. Using the “Social Networks in Adult Life” dataset (Kahn and Antonucci 1980), I explore how network member's characteristics affect the health outcomes of a focal older adult. Characteristics include network member’s mental and physical health, satisfaction with health, organizational involvement, and social support demographics such as being retired or married. I also consider these characteristics for the focal person. I conducted regressions on five outcomes related to the focal person’s mental and physical well-being: overall happiness, satisfaction with life, a count of physical health problems, satisfaction with health, and overall well-being. Preliminary findings suggest that, interestingly, when controlling for a range of specific health issues, the network member’s satisfaction with their health is significantly correlated (p < .001) with the focal person’s satisfaction with their own life and is moderately significantly correlated (p < .05) with the focal person’s count of physical health problems. While I’m still developing the theoretical implications of these findings, I have found that in this sample of older adults, certain characteristics of network members are correlated with a focal person’s well-being.

Author

• Elizabeth Mary Culatta, University of Georgia