Institute of Psychogerontology, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany.
Psychol Aging. 2013 Jun;28(2):529-39. doi: 10.1037/a0032221. Epub 2013 Apr 15.
We explored age differences in the amount of personal effort that people put forth to maintain relationships across adulthood in diverse family-life contexts. More specifically, we examined how personal effort in social relationships is age-differently related to emotional closeness and perceptions of reciprocity. A total of 658 early-midlife (37 years) and old-age adults (73 years) from three life contexts (biological parents, parents from blended families with at least one stepchild, childless individuals) completed a questionnaire assessing ego-centered social networks, relationship quality, perceived conflict, and personal characteristics. As expected, perceived relationship effort was more pronounced and more strongly associated with emotional closeness in old age than in early midlife. In both age groups, perceived effort was comparably associated with reciprocity and conflict. Such associations were similar across the different life contexts. The findings suggest that perceived personal effort in social relationships contributes to the proactive shaping of social worlds across adulthood.
我们探讨了在不同家庭生活环境下，人们在成年后维持人际关系时所付出的个人努力程度随年龄的变化。更具体地说，我们研究了社会关系中的个人努力如何与情感亲密程度和互惠感知呈年龄差异相关。共有来自三个生活背景（亲生父母、至少有一个继子女的混合家庭父母、无子女个体）的 658 名中老年人（37 岁）和老年人（73 岁）完成了一份问卷，评估以自我为中心的社交网络、关系质量、感知冲突和个人特征。正如预期的那样，与中年相比，老年人感知到的关系努力更为明显，与情感亲密程度的关联也更为强烈。在两个年龄组中，感知到的努力与互惠和冲突都有类似的关联。这种关联在不同的生活背景下是相似的。研究结果表明，在社会关系中感知到的个人努力有助于主动塑造整个成年期的社交世界。
