John-Henderson Neha A, Henderson-Matthews Betty, Wood Zachary J, Gilham Skye, Runner George Heavy, Johnson Iii Lester R, Lafromboise Mary Ellen, Malatare Melveena, Salois Emily M
Department of Psychology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA.
Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA.
Int J Behav Med. 2025 Jan 30. doi: 10.1007/s12529-025-10347-0.
While characteristics of an individual's social network and reported loneliness may be linked, they can be distinct. Prior work indicates that gender moderates the relationship between social networks and loneliness; however, these relationships have not been investigated in American Indian adults. The current work investigates whether the relationship between characteristics of one's social network (i.e., social network size and social integration) and loneliness is moderated by gender in a sample of Blackfeet American Indian adults.
At Wave 1 of a longitudinal research project, we used linear regression to test whether gender moderates the relationship between social network characteristics and loneliness in a sample of 275 Blackfeet American Indian adults living in the Blackfeet nation in Montana. Our analyses controlled for age, education, and symptoms and depression and anxiety.
Gender moderated the relationship between social network size and loneliness (β = - 0.15, t(265) = - 2.71, p = 0.01, r change = .04), and the relationship between social integration and loneliness (β = - 0.14, t(265) = - 2.68, p = 0.01, r change = .03). Women with small social networks reported significantly greater loneliness compared to men with similarly small social networks, and for women higher social integration (i.e., more social roles) related to lower loneliness, but this was not the case for men.
Social network characteristics predict loneliness for Blackfeet women but not Blackfeet men in this sample. Future work should elucidate predictors of loneliness for Blackfeet men and consider whether daily changes in social connectedness predict changes in loneliness and whether changes in social networks predict changes in loneliness.
虽然个人社交网络的特征与报告的孤独感可能存在关联，但它们可能是不同的。先前的研究表明，性别会调节社交网络与孤独感之间的关系；然而，这些关系尚未在美国印第安成年人中进行研究。当前的研究调查了在黑脚族美国印第安成年人样本中，社交网络特征（即社交网络规模和社会融合度）与孤独感之间的关系是否受到性别的调节。
在一项纵向研究项目的第一波调查中，我们使用线性回归来测试在居住在蒙大拿州黑脚族地区的275名黑脚族美国印第安成年人样本中，性别是否调节社交网络特征与孤独感之间的关系。我们的分析控制了年龄、教育程度、症状以及抑郁和焦虑情况。
性别调节了社交网络规模与孤独感之间的关系（β = -0.15，t(265) = -2.71，p = 0.01，r变化 = 0.04），以及社会融合度与孤独感之间的关系（β = -0.14，t(265) = -2.68，p = 0.01，r变化 = 0.03）。与社交网络规模同样小的男性相比，社交网络规模小的女性报告的孤独感明显更强，对于女性而言，更高的社会融合度（即更多的社会角色）与更低的孤独感相关，但男性并非如此。
在这个样本中，社交网络特征可以预测黑脚族女性的孤独感，但不能预测黑脚族男性的孤独感。未来的研究应该阐明黑脚族男性孤独感的预测因素，并考虑社交联系的日常变化是否能预测孤独感的变化，以及社交网络的变化是否能预测孤独感的变化。
