Abstract
Social relationships are crucial to effective functioning in adulthood, especially in late life as older adults increasingly rely on their network members for support in the face of physical and cognitive declines (Antonucci et al., 2014; Pinquart & Sorensen, 2000; Windsor et al., 2012). Over the past several decades, scholars have increasingly drawn attention to the complex, dynamic, and multifaceted nature of social relationships in late life. The compilation of papers in this special issue embraces this complexity both theoretically and methodologically, and in so doing, captures how social relationships shape the health and well-being of older adults. From illustrating the power of relationship quality to the roles that age and context play in the links between social ties and health, these papers offer scholars new insights into the how, when, and where of social relationships.
The first three papers in this special issue underscore the power of the quality (as opposed to the quantity) of social relationships and demonstrate that different types of social ties have differing implications for women’s well-being across the adult lifespan. In a sample of 537 older African American women, Nguyen et al. (2021) found that negative interactions with family, but not church members, were associated with lower happiness and self-esteem. These effects were particularly pronounced among the oldest-old women in the sample. Their findings dovetail nicely with Fuller’s (2021) paper showing that being more satisfied with friends and family, rather than simply the number of family or friends, predicted greater well-being in a sample of 224 older women, again particularly for the oldest women in the sample. Together, these papers imply that although vulnerability to negative interactions may increase for women across the lifespan, women also reap greater benefits from high quality relationships as they age. Extending these findings by considering the possible antecedents and consequences of relationship quality, Shane et al.’s (2021) longitudinal analyses across 18 years explores the directionality of associations between relationship quality and multiple indices of health and well-being. Their cross-lagged analyses of 771 older women indicated that whereas romantic relationships were more likely to predict health and well-being, including fewer chronic health conditions and greater self-acceptance, the quality of older women’s relationships with their family members was particularly sensitive to their physical health and functioning. Together, this set of papers emphasizes the importance of moving beyond merely assessing the quantity of individuals’ social ties to evaluating their quality, particularly as individuals age.
The next two papers in this special issue nicely illustrate the processes through which social relationships may actually impact individuals’ health and well-being. The paper by Wilson et al. (2021) revealed that the perception of support may be a key driving factor in how our social relationships affect our health. In a profile analysis of a sample of 454 middle-aged to older adults, these authors found that individuals in profiles characterized by high perceived support (even if those individuals preferred not to actually use the support) fared better in terms of overall health than individuals in more disengaged and isolated profiles. Suggesting that the effects of social ties may also get “under the skin,” Rodrigues et al. (2021) found in their study of 32 younger and older women that although individuals can develop shared labels as a way to improve the effectiveness of communication in a problem-solving task with both friends and strangers, cortisol concentration was lower when interacting with friends for both younger and older women. These papers combine to offer an important micro-level vantage point to understand how social ties interact both within and across individuals.
Zooming out from the previous set of papers, the last two papers in this special issue utilized qualitative inquiries to showcase the important role of the broader context in understanding how older women experience their social relationships. Through a series of focus groups with 55 older women, Barragan (2021) found that a community-based fitness program acted as a conduit for the women to form and maintain friendships. Rather surprisingly, these friendships formed regardless of how actively the women participated in the fitness portion of the program, suggesting that the fitness program context had unintended, albeit equally important, effects on their sense of connection. Exploring the cultural milieu of older women’s sense of connection, Dhillon and Humble (2021) examined how five older Punjabi women who had immigrated to Nova Scotia interpreted their social ties. Underscoring the complexity of our closest ties, these women shared the tensions they felt between wanting to be independent but feeling overly reliant on their families, while also highlighting how their family’s happiness was integral to their own well-being. However, these women also expressed their desire to connect with other older Punjabi women, again underscoring the need to feel more connected to a wider range of individuals.
Collectively, the papers in this special issue offer both a micro- and macro-level view of social relationships in the lives of older women, showing that social networks are comprised of a broad array of individuals – from family and friends to individuals connected through location and culture. In sum, with diversity in terms of both samples and methodologies, this special issue highlights the importance of understanding not only with whom older adults are interacting, but also how older adults are interacting with others, where these interactions take place, and when in the life course these interactions are occurring.