Closeness, loneliness, support: Core ties and significant ties in personal communities

Abstract

Past research has introduced further distinctions within the strong ties that form our personal communities. This work aimed at a comparison between core and significant ties in terms of their emotional closeness to ego, the social provisions that are exchanged, the relationship maintenance behaviours reported, and ego's loneliness. Measures for all these variables were assessed in a survey study. Evidence for a trade-off between the number of ties and their level of intimacy was obtained such that having more core ties was associated with lower levels of intimacy. Distinct signatures for friends from both sets of ties emerged for friendship maintenance behaviours and social provisions exchanged. Further, social and emotional loneliness were differentially related to the number and the intimacy of core and significant ties.