title: The relationship of age to personal network size, relational multiplexity, and proximity to alters in the Western United States.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study examines the association of age and other sociodemographic variables with properties of personal networks; using samples of individuals residing in the rural western United States and the City of Los Angeles, we evaluate the degree to which these associations vary with geographical context. For both samples, we test the hypothesis that age is negatively associated with network size (i.e., degree) and positively associated with network multiplexity (the extent of overlap) on 6 different relations: core discussion members, social activity participants, emergency contacts, neighborhood safety contacts, job informants, and kin. We also examine the relationship between age and spatial proximity to alters.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our data consist of a large-scale, spatially stratified egocentric network survey containing information about respondents and those to whom they are tied. We use Poisson regression to test our hypothesis regarding degree while adjusting for covariates, including education, gender, race, and self-reported sense of neighborhood belonging. We use multiple linear regression to test our hypotheses on multiplexity and distance to alters.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For both rural and urban populations, we find a nonmonotone association between age and numbers of core discussants and emergency contacts, with rural populations also showing nonmonotone associations for social activity partners and kin. These nonmonotone relationships show a peak in expected degree at midlife, followed by an eventual decline. We find a decline in degree among the elderly for all relations in both populations. Age is positively associated with distance to nonhousehold alters for the rural population, although residential tenure is associated with shorter ego-alter distances in both rural and urban settings. Additionally, age is negatively associated with network multiplexity for both populations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although personal network size ultimately declines with age, we find that increases for some relations extend well into late-midlife and most elders still maintain numerous contacts across diverse relations. The evidence we present suggests that older people tap into an wider variety of different network members for different types of relations than do younger people. This is true even for populations in rural settings, for whom immediate access to potential alters is more limited.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine.
authors.forename: Emily J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Marcum
authors.affiliation: Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri, St. Louis.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boessen
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, School of Statistics, Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
authors.forename: Zack W
authors.initials: ZW
authors.lastname: Almquist
authors.affiliation: Department of Criminology, Law, and Society, University of California, Irvine.
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hipp
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
authors.forename: Nicholas N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Nagle
authors.affiliation: Departments of Sociology, Statistics, and EECS, and Institute for Mathematical and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Irvine. buttsc@uci.edu.
authors.forename: Carter T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Butts
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D015141:Los Angeles / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012944:Social Support; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Multiplexity; Social networks; Support relations.