Department of Sociology, Cornell University, 323 Uris Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2011 Nov;66(6):782-94. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbr111. Epub 2011 Oct 9.
Most studies of older adults' social networks focus on their access to dense networks that yield access to social support. This paper documents gender differences in the extent to which older adults maintain a related, but distinct, form of social capital-bridging potential, which involves serving as a tie between two unconnected parties and thus boosts independence and control of everyday social life.
I use egocentric social network data from a national sample of 3,005 older adults--collected in 2005-2006 by the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project--to compare older men's and women's network bridging potential using multivariate regression analysis.
Older women are more likely than older men to have bridging potential in their networks-between both kin and non-kin contacts. These gender differences increase with age. Older women are also more likely to have network members who are not connected to or monopolized by their spouse or partner. Some, but not all, of these gender differences are due to the fact that older women have larger social networks and maintain more ties to people outside of the household.
These findings raise important questions about the relational advantages older women have over older men, including greater autonomy, and contradict stereotypes about women having more closely knit, kin-centered networks than men.
大多数关于老年人社交网络的研究都集中在他们获取密集网络以获得社会支持的能力上。本文记录了老年人在维持相关但不同形式的社会资本——桥接潜力方面的性别差异，这涉及到作为两个不相关的群体之间的联系纽带，从而增强了日常生活中社会生活的独立性和控制力。
我使用了来自全国 3005 名老年人的个人中心社交网络数据（2005-2006 年由国家社会生活、健康和老龄化项目收集），通过多元回归分析比较了老年男性和女性的网络桥接潜力。
与老年男性相比，老年女性在其网络中（包括亲属和非亲属联系人之间）更有可能具有桥接潜力。这些性别差异随着年龄的增长而增加。老年女性也更有可能拥有与配偶或伴侣没有联系或没有被其垄断的网络成员。这些性别差异的部分原因是老年女性拥有更大的社交网络，并与家庭以外的人保持更多的联系。
这些发现提出了一些重要的问题，即老年女性相对于老年男性具有哪些关系优势，包括更大的自主性，这与女性的社交网络比男性更紧密、以亲属为中心的刻板印象相矛盾。
