Cornwell Benjamin
Department of Sociology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2015 Jan;70(1):132-42. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbu078. Epub 2014 Jul 5.
Research shows that socially disadvantaged groups--especially African Americans and people of low socioeconomic status (SES)--experience more unstable social environments. I argue that this causes higher rates of turnover within their personal social networks. This is a particularly important issue among disadvantaged older adults, who may benefit from stable networks. This article, therefore, examines whether social disadvantage is related to various aspects of personal network change.
Social network change was assessed using longitudinal egocentric network data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, a study of older adults conducted between 2005 and 2011. Data collection in Wave 2 included a technique for comparing respondents' confidant network rosters between waves. Rates of network losses, deaths, and additions were modeled using multivariate Poisson regression.
African Americans and low-SES individuals lost more confidants--especially due to death--than did whites and college-educated respondents. African Americans also added more confidants than whites. However, neither African Americans nor low-SES individuals were able to match confidant losses with new additions to the extent that others did, resulting in higher levels of confidant network shrinkage. These trends are partly, but not entirely, explained by disadvantaged individuals' poorer health and their greater risk of widowhood or marital dissolution.
Additional work is needed to shed light on the role played by race- and class-based segregation on group differences in social network turnover. Social gerontologists should examine the role these differences play in explaining the link between social disadvantage and important outcomes in later life, such as health decline.
研究表明，社会弱势群体——尤其是非裔美国人和社会经济地位较低的人群——经历着更不稳定的社会环境。我认为这导致了他们个人社交网络中更高的人员更替率。这对于弱势老年人群体来说是一个尤为重要的问题，他们可能会从稳定的社交网络中受益。因此，本文探讨社会弱势地位是否与个人社交网络变化的各个方面相关。
使用来自“全国社会生活、健康与老龄化项目”的纵向自我中心网络数据评估社交网络变化，该项目是一项在2005年至2011年间对老年人开展的研究。第二轮数据收集包括一种比较各轮次受访者密友网络名册的技术。使用多元泊松回归对网络流失、死亡和新增人员的比率进行建模。
与白人和受过大学教育的受访者相比，非裔美国人和社会经济地位较低的个体失去了更多密友——尤其是因死亡导致的——。非裔美国人新增的密友也比白人多。然而，非裔美国人和社会经济地位较低的个体在以新增密友来弥补密友流失的程度上，都不如其他人，导致密友网络收缩程度更高。这些趋势部分（但并非全部）可由弱势个体较差的健康状况以及他们更高的丧偶或婚姻解体风险来解释。
需要开展更多工作来阐明基于种族和阶层的隔离在社交网络更替的群体差异中所起的作用。社会老年学家应研究这些差异在解释社会弱势地位与晚年重要结果（如健康衰退）之间的联系中所起的作用。
