Center for Healthy Aging, Pennsylvania State University.
Psychol Aging. 2018 Jun;33(4):607-618. doi: 10.1037/pag0000242. Epub 2018 Apr 30.
Prevailing research has suggested that social relationships get better with age, but this evidence has been largely based on studies with lengthy reporting intervals. Using an ecological momentary assessment approach, the present study examined age differences in several characteristics of social interactions as reported in near-real time: the frequency, quality, and partner type. Participants (N = 173) ages 20-79 years reported their social interactions at 5 random times throughout the day for 1 week. Results revealed that age was associated with higher frequency of interacting with family and lower frequency of interacting with peripheral partners. These age effects, however, became nonsignificant after accounting for contextual factors such as race, gender, education, employment status, family structure, and living arrangement. In contrast, a curvilinear relationship best characterized age differences in both positive and negative ratings of daily social interaction quality, with middle-aged adults reporting the lowest positive ratings and older adults reporting the lowest negative ratings among all ages. Contextual factors did not account for these patterns of age differences in interaction quality. Furthermore, the intraindividual variability of interaction frequency with peripheral partners, partner diversity, and interaction quality (positivity and negativity) was lower among older adults than among younger adults. Findings from the present study portray a nuanced picture of social interactions in daily life and advance the understanding of social interactions across the life span. (PsycINFO Database Record
主流研究表明，社会关系会随着年龄的增长而改善，但这些证据主要基于具有较长报告间隔的研究。本研究采用生态瞬间评估方法，实时考察了社会互动的几个特征在不同年龄段的差异：互动频率、质量和伙伴类型。参与者（N=173）年龄在 20-79 岁之间，在一周内的 5 个随机时间报告他们的社会互动。结果表明，年龄与与家人互动的频率更高和与边缘伙伴互动的频率更低有关。然而，在考虑到种族、性别、教育、就业状况、家庭结构和居住安排等背景因素后，这些年龄效应变得不显著。相比之下，正、负日常社会互动质量评分的年龄差异最好用曲线关系来描述，中年成年人的正评分最低，而所有年龄段中老年人的负评分最低。背景因素并不能解释这些互动质量的年龄差异模式。此外，与年轻成年人相比，老年成年人与边缘伙伴的互动频率、伙伴多样性和互动质量（积极性和消极性）的个体内变异性较低。本研究的结果描绘了日常生活中社会互动的复杂图景，推进了对整个生命周期社会互动的理解。
