van Tilburg T
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 1998 Nov;53(6):S313-23. doi: 10.1093/geronb/53b.6.s313.
Previous studies have shown that most older people have a significant number of relationships. However, the question of whether the aging of old people produces losses in their personal networks remains open for discussion. This study models the individual variability of the changes affecting multiple personal network characteristics.
Personal interviews were conducted with 2,903 older Dutch adults (aged 55-85) in three waves of a four-year longitudinal study.
A stable total network size was observed, with an increasing number of close relatives and a decreasing number of friends. Contact frequency decreased in relationships, and the instrumental support received and emotional support given increased. Age moderated the effect of time for some of the network characteristics, and for many of them, effects of regression towards the mean were detected. Furthermore, major variations in the direction and the speed of the changes were detected among individual respondents, and nonlinear trends were observed.
The widely varying patterns of losses and gains among the respondents squares with the focus on the heterogeneity of developments among aging people. The instability of the network composition might reflect the natural circulation in the membership of networks.
以往研究表明，大多数老年人拥有大量的人际关系。然而，老年人的衰老是否会导致其个人社交网络的减少这一问题仍有待讨论。本研究对影响多种个人社交网络特征变化的个体差异进行建模。
在一项为期四年的纵向研究的三个阶段，对2903名荷兰老年成年人（年龄在55 - 85岁之间）进行了个人访谈。
观察到社交网络的总体规模稳定，近亲数量增加，朋友数量减少。人际关系中的联系频率降低，获得的工具性支持和给予的情感支持增加。年龄对某些社交网络特征的时间效应起到调节作用，并且其中许多特征检测到了均值回归效应。此外，在个体受访者中检测到变化方向和速度的主要差异，并观察到非线性趋势。
受访者中广泛存在的得失模式差异与关注老年人发展的异质性相契合。社交网络组成的不稳定性可能反映了社交网络成员的自然更替。
