For researchers and practitioners interested in social relationships, the question remains as to how large social networks typically are, and how their size and composition change across adulthood. On the basis of predictions of socioemotional selectivity theory and social convoy theory, we conducted a meta-analysis on age-related social network changes and the effects of life events on social networks using 277 studies with 177,635 participants from adolescence to old age. Cross-sectional as well as longitudinal studies consistently showed that (a) the global social network increased up until young adulthood and then decreased steadily, (b) both the personal network and the friendship network decreased throughout adulthood, (c) the family network was stable in size from adolescence to old age, and (d) other networks with coworkers or neighbors were important only in specific age ranges. Studies focusing on life events that occur at specific ages, such as transition to parenthood, job entry, or widowhood, demonstrated network changes similar to such age-related network changes. Moderator analyses detected that the type of network assessment affected the reported size of global, personal, and family networks. Period effects on network sizes occurred for personal and friendship networks, which have decreased in size over the last 35 years. Together the findings are consistent with the view that a portion of normative, age-related social network changes are due to normative, age-related life events. We discuss how these patterns of normative social network development inform research in social, evolutionary, cultural, and personality psychology.

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Social network changes and life events across the life span: a meta-analysis.

Exploring variation in active network size: Constraints and ego characteristics

We suggest that single adults in contemporary American society are targets of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination, a phenomenon we will call singlism. Singlism is an outgrowth of a largely uncontested set of beliefs, the Ideology of Marriage and Family. Its premises include the assumptions that the sexual partnership is the one truly important peer relationship and that people who have such partnerships are happier and more fulfilled than those who do not. We use published claims about the greater happiness of married people to illustrate how the scientific enterprise seems to be influenced by the ideology. We propose that people who are single—particularly women who have always been single—fare better than the ideology would predict because they do have positive, enduring, and important interpersonal relationships. The persistence of singlism is especially puzzling considering that actual differences based on civil (marital) status seemtobequalifiedandsmall, thenumberof singles isgrowing,andsensitivity to other varieties of prejudice is acute. By way of explanation, we consider arguments from evolutionary psychology, attachment theory, a social problems perspective, thegrowthof thecultof thecouple,and theappealofan ideology thatoffersasimpleand compelling worldview.

/pdf/singles-in-society-and-in-science-370lt55j2q.pdf

Singles in Society and in Science

Shared friendship networks and the life course: an analysis of survey data on married and cohabiting couples

We suggest that single adults in contemporary American society are targets of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination, a phenomenon we will call singlism. Singlism is an outgrowth of a largely uncontested set of beliefs, the Ideology of Marriage and Family. Its premises include the assumptions that the sexual partnership is the one truly important peer relationship and that people who have such partnerships are happier and more fulfilled than those who do not. We use published claims about the greater happiness of married people to illustrate how the scientific enterprise seems to be influenced by the ideology. We propose that people who are single-particularly women who have always been single-fare better than the ideology would predict because they do have positive, enduring, and important interpersonal relationships. The persistence of singlism is especially puzzling considering that actual differences based on civil (marital) status seem to be qualified and small, the number of singles is growing,...

TARGET ARTICLE: Singles in Society and in Science

A number of theorists have argued that increased romantic involvement of a couple with each other necessarily leads to decreased involvement with other members of their social network. A critical analysis of those arguments suggests that the withdrawal process is socially defined rather than existentially necessary,, and selective rather than universal. Data are presented on network structure for a sample of 419 university students involved in relationships ranging from occasional dating through marriage. The results indicate that as couples become more romantically involved, their friendship networks shrink and they become less involved with those friends who remain in the network. Kin networks do not shrink, although the variance in number of kin listed incredses dramatically at engagement and again at marriage. Results are discussed in terms of the interpersonal construction of definitions of relationships and the networks in which they are embedded.

Leigh Leslie

Papers

Couple involvement and network structure: A test of the dyadic withdrawal hypothesis.