title: The health benefits of network growth: new evidence from a national survey of older adults.
abstract: Scholars who study how social networks affect older adults' health are often concerned with the prospect of declining social connectedness in late life. This paper shifts the focus to older adults' tendencies to cultivate new social ties. This process of network growth can improve access to social resources, boost self-esteem, reduce loneliness, and increase physical activity. We therefore examine the link between tie cultivation and health using new longitudinal data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), which recorded changes in older adults' confidant network rosters over a period of about five years. Most respondents (81.8%) added at least one new network member during the study period, and most (59.4%) cultivated multiple new confidant relationships. Longitudinal analyses suggest that the addition of new confidants is associated with improvements in functional, self-rated, and psychological health, net of baseline connectedness as well as any network losses that occurred during the same period. Network losses were associated with physical but not psychological well-being. These findings underscore the importance of distinguishing between concurrent processes that underlie social network change in later life, and highlight the need for additional research on the mechanisms by which network change may improve health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Cornell University, 354 Uris Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. Electronic address: btc49@cornell.edu.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cornwell
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, 1126 E. 59th Street, Room 410, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. Electronic address: e-laumann@uchicago.edu.
authors.forename: Edward O
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Laumann
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology; D000369:Aged, 80 and over / Q000523:psychology; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged / Q000523:psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D012944:Social Support
keywords: Aging; Depression; Functional health; Life course; Network change; Self-rated health; Social networks