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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Age related patterns in social networks among European Americans and African Americans
— implications for socioemotional selectivity across the life span | | Author(s) | Helene H Fung, Laura L Carstensen, Frieder R Lang |
| Journal title | International Journal of Aging and Human Development, vol 52, no 3, 2001 |
| Pages | pp 185-206 |
| Keywords | White people ; Black people ; Age groups [elderly] ; Personal relationships ; Personality ; Life span ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Socio-emotional selectivity theory contends that as people become increasingly aware of limitations of future time, they are increasingly motivated to be more selective in their choice of social partners, favouring emotionally meaningful relationships over peripheral ones. A hypothesis based on this theory is tested with 57 African Americans and 128 European Americans, ethnic groups whose social structural resources differ. Across a wide span range (ages 18 to 94) and in both ethnic groups, older people report as many emotionally close social patterns, but fewer peripheral social partners in their networks as compared to their younger counterparts. Moreover, a greater percentage of very close social partners in social networks is related to lower levels of happiness in the younger age group, but not in older age groups. Implications of findings for adaptive social functions across the life span are discussed. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-010717202 A |
| Classmark | TKA: TKE: BB: DS: DK: BG6: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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