For example, there may be a decrease in network size and change in network support with marriage of adult children, birth of grandchildren, retirement, or change in marital status. Theories of ConstraintĪs relationships are drawn from foci of activity, the places in which we live, work, and socialize ( Feld, 1981), structural constraints due to life course transitions may cause contraction in personal networks with age.
This suggests that older adults maintain contacts fulfilling specific functions, that is, functional selectivity theory (FST), rather than a core of contacts providing multiple functions ( Lang, Rieckmann, & Baltes, 2002). work, however, shows a decrease in tie multiplexity with age ( Smith et al., 2015). evidence that emotional support remains stable with age, even as receipt of other support increases and contact with friends declines, seems to support SST ( Shaw, Krause, Liang, & Bennett, 2007). This investment leads to the shedding of peripheral ties and networks becoming smaller, denser, more kin-centric, and having greater multiplexity, that is, each social contact provides a greater variety of support types ( Fung, Carstensen, & Lang, 2001). Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) argues that, as individuals age, they become more aware of their mortality and increasingly invest in a core group of emotionally intimate network members ( Carstensen, 1992).
Instead, they may reflect socioemotional or functional selectivity ( Cornwell, Schumm, Laumann, Kim, & Kim, 2014). Resisting theory that smaller networks in older age are the result of increasing social disengagement ( Cumming & Henry, 1961), contemporary scholars emphasize that older individuals’ smaller networks may not reflect social isolation ( York Cornwell & Waite, 2009). These theories have become associated with particular hypotheses, but they are not mutually exclusive, and often interact to impact social activity. Two groups of theories explain how social contact patterns change with age in higher-income countries: theories of choice and theories of constraint. studies report that in contrast with younger and middle aged adults, older adults have smaller personal networks ( Cornwell, Laumann, & Schumm, 2008) and lower rates of daily social contact and participation in social activities ( Cornwell, 2011 Marcum, 2013). Aging and Network Changes in High-Income Countries In this article, we use personal network data from 5,059 older adults living in rural Mpumalanga, South Africa to examine the extent to which theories developed in higher-income settings about network changes hold in rural South Africa by analyzing how patterns of social contact and support vary by age and gender in this population. While several qualitative studies of personal networks have been conducted in SSA, including with older adults ( De Klerk, 2011 van Eeuwijk, 2014), quantitative studies appear limited to a small study of older HIV-positive Togolese adults ( Moore & Prybutok, 2014). Yet despite recognition that social networks are associated with health ( Berkman & Krishna, 2014 Perkins et al., 2015), research on older adults’ social networks in low- and middle-income countries, particularly SSA, is limited. Given the paucity of formal social support on the continent, provision of informal support through personal networks may be more important for physical and mental health than elsewhere ( Perkins, Subramanian, & Christakis, 2015). Supportive networks in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have been shown to improve access to medical care, HIV testing and adherence to antiretroviral therapy ( Musheke et al., 2013 Ware et al., 2009). In the United States and Europe, fewer numbers and poorer quality of social relationships in later life are associated with depression and loneliness ( Stoeckel & Litwin, 2016), cognitive and functional impairment ( Kuiper et al., 2015), risk of long-term care institutionalization ( Pynnönen, Törmäkangas, Heikkinen, Rantanen, & Lyyra, 2012), and mortality ( Shor & Roelfs, 2015). Personal social networks promote well-being across the life course and are considered a key to “successful aging.” Social relationships often provide both emotional and instrumental support, protecting against and aiding recovery from health shocks through numerous mechanisms ( Thoits, 2011). Constraint theory, Functional selectivity theory, Kin, Marital status, Socioemotional selectivity theory