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Social Network Type and Health among Older Americans

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Social Capital as a Health Resource in Later Life: The Relevance of Context

Part of the book series: International Perspectives on Aging ((Int. Perspect. Aging,volume 11))

Abstract

Our prime interest in this chapter concerns the health consequences of embeddedness in social network types that are characterized by different levels of social capital. The construct of social network type was developed to provide a means by which to take the complexity of the interpersonal environment in late life into account. This book chapter focuses on the social network types that are prevalent among older Americans i.e. “friends”, “diverse”, “congregant”, “family” and “restricted”, and their associations with health. It reviews recent analytical studies that we performed based on data from the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSHAP), and introduces a new analysis of the data examining the relationship between social network types and the key functional and physical health indicators of self-reported disability and subjective health. The findings show, in general, that older people who are embedded in social network types characterized by greater social capital tend to be emotionally and physically healthier and tend to adopt more health-promoting behaviors. Finally we discuss the practical implications and future research that follow from our results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel

    Sharon Shiovitz-Ezra & Howard Litwin

Authors
  1. Sharon Shiovitz-Ezra
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  2. Howard Litwin
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Correspondence to Sharon Shiovitz-Ezra .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies, Study Programme in Social Sciences, Social Policy, Åbo Akademi University, Vaasa, Finland

    Fredrica Nyqvist

  2. Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies, Study Programme in Social Sciences, Developmental Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Vaasa, Finland

    Anna K. Forsman

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Shiovitz-Ezra, S., Litwin, H. (2015). Social Network Type and Health among Older Americans. In: Nyqvist, F., Forsman, A. (eds) Social Capital as a Health Resource in Later Life: The Relevance of Context. International Perspectives on Aging, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9615-6_2

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