Non-kin Members Research Articles

Chronic illness and social network bridging in later life

Chronic disease has profound impacts on the structural features of individuals’ interpersonal connections such as bridging — ties to people who are otherwise poorly connected to each other. Prior research has documented competing arguments regarding the benefits of network bridging, but less is known about how chronic illness influences bridging and its underlying mechanisms. Using data on 1555 older adults from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), I find that older adults diagnosed with chronic illness tend to have lower bridging potential in their networks, particularly between kin and non-kin members. They also report more frequent interactions with close ties but fewer neighbors, friends, and colleagues in their networks, which mediates the association between chronic illness and social network bridging. These findings illuminate both direct and indirect pathways through which chronic illness affects network bridging and highlight the context-specific implications for social networks in later life.

Relational burden, depression, and loneliness among American older adults: an inquiry into the ‘dark side of social capital’

Objectives Social networks and resources embedded in them are shown to promote mental health. This study examines whether there may be deleterious consequences of interpersonal ties and social capital on loneliness and depression in later life. Method Using data from the latest wave of National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSHAP) 2015–2016, we examine how relational burden is associated with mental health outcomes among older American adults. We also assess whether relational burden measured at the contextual, or regional, level may moderate the link between collective efficacy (neighborhood cohesion) and depression/loneliness. Results Individual-level relational burden stemming from both kin and non-kin members is associated with higher levels of depression and loneliness. Moreover, regional-level kin and non-kin types of relational burden significantly amplify the negative relationship between collective efficacy and depression. For loneliness, however, we do not find such cross-level interaction. Conclusion Unlike prior research using conventional measures of social capital (e.g. trust, frequency of social interaction, and organizational participation) to evaluate its potential downside, our study contributes to the literature by directly operationalizing the concept of ‘relational burden’, stress due to excessive demands from others, at individual and contextual levels of analysis.

Close ties, near and far away: patterns and predictors of geographic network range among older Europeans.

A growing number of older adults maintain connections in their core discussion networks at variant distances, raising concerns about the lack of discussants in proximity and the consequences on their social life. This study examines the typical geographic layouts for aging Europeans' core discussion networks and their implications for network function and quality. With a sample of community-dwelling respondents aged 50 and above from the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe, the present research identifies seven geographic layouts that extend previously identified family and diverse network types by adding spatial nuance. Individuals in mid-range and distant-family networks typically lack a discussant nearby but sustain high emotional closeness with family discussants at a distance and express high overall satisfaction with their network. Proximate-diverse networks with a strong representation of non-kin members nearby turn out to be less advantageous than prior research might suggest, providing relatively frequent contact but the lowest level of network satisfaction. Results also identify how individual characteristics link to the geographic layouts and describe their prevalence across European regions. Overall, relatively dispersed layouts are common for older adults across multiple countries and do not necessarily indicate lower emotional closeness and network satisfaction. The present study highlights the importance of looking beyond the mere presence of proximate connections in older adults’ core networks.

The early hunting dog from Dmanisi with comments on the social behaviour in Canidae and hominins

The renowned site of Dmanisi in Georgia, southern Caucasus (ca. 1.8 Ma) yielded the earliest direct evidence of hominin presence out of Africa. In this paper, we report on the first record of a large-sized canid from this site, namely dentognathic remains, referable to a young adult individual that displays hypercarnivorous features (e.g., the reduction of the m1 metaconid and entoconid) that allow us to include these specimens in the hypodigm of the late Early Pleistocene species Canis (Xenocyon) lycaonoides. Much fossil evidence suggests that this species was a cooperative pack-hunter that, unlike other large-sized canids, was capable of social care toward kin and non-kin members of its group. This rather derived hypercarnivorous canid, which has an East Asian origin, shows one of its earliest records at Dmanisi in the Caucasus, at the gates of Europe. Interestingly, its dispersal from Asia to Europe and Africa followed a parallel route to that of hominins, but in the opposite direction. Hominins and hunting dogs, both recorded in Dmanisi at the beginning of their dispersal across the Old World, are the only two Early Pleistocene mammal species with proved altruistic behaviour towards their group members, an issue discussed over more than one century in evolutionary biology.

Investigating social networks of older Singaporean learners: a mixed methods approach

ABSTRACTLifelong learning is regarded as an important channel in promoting active engagement in later life for aging societies. While most studies depict older learners as a group resilient to engaging in lifelong learning, few have addressed the impacts of their social networks on their participation. Drawing on the nationwide lifelong learning program in Singapore, the study explores the extent older Singaporean adults’ social networks influence their involvement in learning courses and illustrates how those networks matter to their motivations. A mixed methods approach consisting of two network instruments (Name Generator and Position Generator) and in-depth interviews based on 30 older Singaporeans (between 50 and 79 years old) were employed. The findings demonstrated that primary family members (spouse and children) were key discussants for older learners, but the narratives showed only children were key supporters. For female learners, husbands’ support could be limited. Such a gender difference was revealed in overlap networks among couples, with male learners receiving greater positive support from their wives. Furthermore, the results showed that single or widowed learners had more non-kin members and diverse network resources, which reflect in their discourses of being highly motivated and active in spreading news of courses. To conclude, the study delivered deeper understandings of how diverse social contexts influence older learners’ motivations. Future research shall continue to focus on variations of network characteristics and network resources to improve the understanding of how significant others and accessible network resources provide social support or opportunities for older learners.

INVESTIGATING SOCIAL NETWORKS OF OLDER SINGAPOREAN LEARNERS: THE MIXED-METHODS SOCIAL NETWORK APPROACH

Lifelong learning has been regarded as an important factor of promoting active engagement in later life for researchers and policy makers. Most of the studies tend to illustrate old learners as a homogeneous and self-resilient group of people to engage in lifelong learning. Few studies address older learners’ social capital in affecting their decision of engagement and in sustaining their motivation. The study documented the existing social networks of older Singaporeans in lifelong learning programs and illustrated how social networks contributed their participation in learning. The mixed methods consist of in-depth interviews and two network instruments (Name Generator and Position Generator) based on 30 older Singaporeans (between 50 and 79 years old) who attended lifelong learning courses between 2016 and 2018. Interviews are transcribed and analyzed. The network instruments of are quantified and visualized. The findings show that older learners’ networks included a mixture of social ties from family and friends. Learners’ closeness with network members and their living arrangement with them influenced learners’ involvement in learning and future planning. Single respondents who had more non-kin members in the networks reported to be more active due to their weak ties. Overlapping networks among couple learners increase the spousal support for learning. Learners who had wider ranges of social resources are associated with their interest in learning activities. The study suggests that advocating lifelong learning needs to take older adults’ networks into considerations as networks represent the social forces that influence their decisions and motivations.

DO OLDER ADULTS WITH HIV HAVE A SOCIAL NETWORK DEFICIT? EVIDENCE FROM AGINCOURT, SOUTH AFRICA

HIV/AIDS has had a substantial social and economic impact on Sub-Saharan Africa, and research is only beginning to examine the prevalence and consequences of HIV infection among older adults in this region. Though informal social networks provide crucial resources for older people managing health problems, little is known about how the form and function of such networks differs by HIV status. Drawing from theories of health stigma and network mobilization, we use egocentric network data from HAALSI, the Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (N=5,059). HAALSI is a community-based study centered in Agincourt, South Africa, and focuses on adults ≥40 years of age. Approximately 12% of this sample is HIV positive. Results of multivariable logistic and Poisson regression reveal three main findings. First, relative to those without HIV, infected older adults have larger personal networks—including more kin and more non-kin network members. Second, HIV status has no discernible impact on whether people receive regular emotional support from those in their networks. Third, older adults who have disclosed their HIV status have a relatively high proportion of kin members in the close networks relative to those not infected with HIV and to those with HIV who have not disclosed their disease. Our findings point to the need for further research on the implications of social networks for outcomes such as well-being and health care delivery among older AIDS patients in the Global South.

WHEN CLOSE TIES LIVE FAR AWAY: PATTERNS AND PREDICTORS OF GEOGRAPHIC NETWORK RANGE AMONG OLDER EUROPEANS

Using the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, Wave 6 in 2015), this paper examines the structure of older adults’ core discussion networks in terms of their geographical outreach. We also examine how far respondents live from their friends, and how such a connection is conditioned by the presence of a proximate child in the network. Findings suggest that older adults in Northern Europe are more likely to have a confidant at mid- and long-range (5-25km and >25km, respectively) than seniors in Central Europe, while their counterparts from Eastern and Southern Europe are less likely to identify a discussant out of their 5km radius. This pattern persists when focusing only on non-kin members of one’s network. However, having a nearby child confidant does not affect the probability of being connected to friends at variant distances in North Europe, while it does predict a lower likelihood of having close-by (0-5km) and long-distance (>25km) friends in Eastern and Southern regions. Other significant predictors of one’s geographical network reach, such as education, financial standing, cognitive ability, computer skills, and car ownership are also discussed and compared across European regions.

Age integration in older Europeans' non-kin core networks: Does formal social participation play a role?

Age segregation-the widespread separation of people by age-is deemed by many gerontologists a major problem in contemporary societies. Contributing to this dialog, the current exploratory article examines the presence of non-kin members in European seniors' close personal networks. Specifically, we document network connections to people outside of their 10-year birth cohort, both younger ("downward" age integration) and older ("upward" age integration). We consider whether different aspects of social participation-breadth and intensity of activity, and specific types of participation-are associated with age integration andwe pay particular attention to variation across four regions of the continent. Analyses use Wave 6 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (N = 34,282) which contains an updated social networks module. Results of descriptive analyses and logistic regression models demonstrate three key findings. First, both forms of age integration are rare-fewer than 10% of older Europeans have non-kin networks that extend beyond their owncohorts. Nevertheless, both forms of age integration tend to be higher in northern and central Europe than in the south and east. Second, two dimensions of formal social activity involvement were associated with age integration, namely activity breadth and intensity. Third, though there was some evidence that particular formal activities were linked to age integration, this pattern was not consistent across the whole of Europe. Overall, findings point to the significance of cultural and organizational variation across Europe as well as to important and increasingly relevant social cleavages in the later segments of adulthood.

Relocation and Network Turnover in Later Life: How Distance Moved and Functional Health Are Linked to a Changing Social Convoy.

Life-course transitions among older adults often produce a reshuffling of social network members. Moving is a common experience for U.S. seniors, but relatively little is known about how core networks change amid the relocation process. Drawing on longitudinal data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, the present study examines how late-life moving is associated with changes to network size and the loss and gain of particular network members. We find that when older adults undertake a long-distance move, they tend to add more family to their core network-yet this is moderated by their initial level of functional health. Long-distance moves are also associated with losing nonkin members from the core network. These empirical patterns are interpreted in light of developmental perspectives on late-life relocation, continuity theory, and the social convoy model.

Adaptive Flexibility, Cooperation, and Prosocial Motivations: The Emotional Foundations of Becoming Human

ABSTRACTHumans are highly motivated to cooperate, share, and help others. The evidence for this claim comes from examining prosocial behaviors as they show up very early in development, and by systematic comparisons between young children and mankind’s closest great ape relatives. Highly cooperative and social species that care for kin and nonkin members of their group are rare in nature and call for an evolutionary explanation. Based on the work of Michael Tomasello and others, I offer a possible explanation based on a two-phase model. The first phase of the evolution of cooperation and sociability is induced by climate change taking place during a critical period of human evolution. Climate variability produced shifts from wet, monsoon landscapes to dry and arid landscapes in East Africa, the home of many of humanity’s ancestors. Shifting environmental conditions produced selective pressures favoring adaptive flexibility and forced cooperation and interdependence among our hominin ancestors, who had to search for food (cooperative foraging) and protect each other from predators. Forced interdependence came together with two biosocial adaptations: a cooperative form of raising young children (cooperative breeding) and long-term mating patterns (pair bonding). These biosocial adaptations help explain how the species might have begun to develop emotionally modern intersubjective mind-reading capacities. During a second phase of the evolution of cooperation, the emergence of shared social norms, social reputations, the cumulative effects of cultural knowledge passed on over many generations, and cultural differences produced a new form of evolution: cultural evolution. In turn, cultural evolution produced a new cycle of innovations consisting of symbolic capacities and language. When it comes to psychotherapy, the same conditions that made one human—adaptive flexibility, cooperation, helping others and mutual enjoyment in sharing—are the same conditions that make for a strong therapeutic alliance.

DIVERSITY OF SOCIAL NETWORK AND WELL-BEING AMONG JAPANESE ELDERLY

In this study we examined the structural diversity/homogeneity of the social network of the older Japanese people and assessed how the network diversity was associated with the well-being of older adults. Data were obtained from the Second Social Relations and Health over the Life Course Study conducted in 2005 in Yokohama, Japan. The sample used in this study included participants aged 60 years and older (n = 369). Results showed an interaction effect of marital status. Specifically, it was observed that having a family-centered, homogeneous network had a positive association with subjective and mental well-being of married people. However, for single people, having a network of non-kin members, members belonging to different generations, and members with different educational status, was positively associated with well-being. These results suggested that even in a society where family plays a central role in people’s life, having diverse social relations might be important for a better life, especially when support from family members is not available.

The Hajnal Line and Gene-Culture Coevolution in Northwest Europe

North and west of a line running from Trieste to St. Petersburg, social relations have long conformed to the Western European Marriage Pattern, i.e., men and women marry relatively late; many people never marry; children usually leave the nuclear family to form new households, and households often have non-kin members. This pattern goes back at least to the thirteenth century and perhaps to prehistoric times. I argue that this environment of weaker kinship caused northwest Europeans to create communities based on shared moral rules, rather than shared kinship. Community members enforced these rules by monitoring not only the behavior of other members but also their own behavior and even their own thoughts. Initially, this new mindset did not have a genetic basis. Individuals acquired it within the bounds of phenotypic plasticity. Over time, however, a genetic basis would have developed through the survival and reproduction of individuals who were better at being socially independent, at obeying universal rules, at monitoring other community members, and at self-monitoring, self-judging, and self-punishing. These psychological adaptations—independent social orientation, universal rule adherence, affective empathy, guilt proneness—are moderately to highly heritable. Although they are complex, they required only minor evolutionary changes to evolve out of mechanisms that were already present but limited to specific behavioral contexts. Affective empathy, for instance, is a species-wide trait but usually confined to relations with close kin, particularly between a mother and her young children. An evolutionary scenario is proposed, and two questions discussed. Are these mental traits too complex to have evolved over a span of 30 to 300 generations? Are they too altruistic to be sustainable?

Liminality and low-income aging families by choice: meanings of family and support.

Through the lens of individualization, aging families demonstrate changes both in family composition and in meanings of family and support. So, also, do low-income families that - in order to survive - choose flexible, sometimes novel, social-support relations, including kin and non-kin: these are aging families by choice. Applying the concept of liminality (transitional states of being) created through individualization, we explored the experiences of close relations in low-income families consisting of aging kin and non-kin members. Qualitative interviews with respondents representing two or three generations of aging families of choice illustrated how these families perceive the meanings of family and social support. We find that reciprocity is less vital to relationships of older with younger members in familial networks than may be expected. Liminality contours meanings and exchanges in low-income aging families of choice such that no matter how tenuous relations may be, they provide a sense of belonging and meaning.

Parent-specific reciprocity from infancy to adolescence shapes children's social competence and dialogical skills

Reciprocity – the capacity to engage in social exchange that integrates inputs from multiple partners into a unified social event – is a cornerstone of adaptive social life that is learned within dyad-specific attachments during an early period of neuroplasticity. Yet, very little research traced the expression of children’s reciprocity with their mother and father in relation to long-term outcomes. Guided by evolutionary models, we followed mothers, fathers, and their firstborn child longitudinally and observed mother–child and father–child reciprocity in infancy, preschool, and adolescence. In preschool, children’s social competence, aggression, and prosocial behavior were observed at kindergarten. In adolescence, children’s dialogical skills were assessed during positive and conflict interactions with same-sex best friends. Father–child and mother–child reciprocity were individually stable, inter-related at each stage, and consisted of distinct behavioral components. Structural equation modeling indicated that early maternal and paternal reciprocity were each uniquely predictive of social competence and lower aggression in preschool, which, in turn, shaped dialogical skills in adolescence. Father–adolescent reciprocity contributed to the dialogical negotiation of conflict, whereas mother–adolescent reciprocity predicted adolescents’ dialogical skills during positive exchanges. Results highlight the role of parent–child reciprocity in shaping children’s social collaboration and intimate relationships with non-kin members of their social world.

A Six-Year Follow-up Study of Social Network Changes among African-American, Caribbean, and U.S.-Born Caucasian Urban Older Adults

This study explores dynamic changes in network size and composition by examining patterns of older adults' social network change over time, that is: types of movements; the reason for the loss of network members; and the relation of movement and composition in concert. This study is a 6-year follow up of changes in the social networks of U.S.-Born Caucasian, African-American, and Caribbean older adults. One hundred and twenty-four community-dwelling older adults were interviewed during 2 data collection points over a 6-year period. Differences between Wave 1 and Wave 2 data were examined using paired sample t-tests confirmed with post-hoc tests and multivariate analyses. Results regarding types of movement showed that network changes were attributed to attrition--the "loss" of network members and a novel movement--the "addition" of network members not heretofore discussed. The results show an interaction between kinship status, ethnicity, and time--the attrition of non-kin members was underscored by ethnic differences. The type of network change was specific for type of network affiliation, such that children were more likely to be added to the networks of the young-old and kin were more likely to be lost in networks of the old-old. Older adults engage in social network interactions marked by compensatory processes beyond loss of network members such as social promotion and demotion. These social network processes are of emotional and functional significance for the older adult.

Parenting and Beyond: Common Neurocircuits Underlying Parental and Altruistic Caregiving

SYNOPSIS Interpersonal relationships constitute the foundation on which human society is based. The infant–caregiver bond is the earliest and most influential of these relationships. Driven by evolutionary pressure for survival, parents feel compelled to provide care to their biological offspring. However, compassion for non-kin is also ubiquitous in human societies, motivating individuals to suppress their own self-interests to promote the well-being of non-kin members of the society. We argue that the process of early kinship-selective parental care provides the foundation for non-exclusive altruism via the activation of a general Caregiving System that regulates compassion in any of its forms. We propose a tripartite structure of this system that includes (1) the perception of need in another, (2) a caring motivational or feeling state, and (3) the delivery of a helping response to the individual in need. Findings from human and animal research point to specific neurobiological mechanisms including activation of the insula and the secretion of oxytocin that support the adaptive functioning of this Caregiving System.

Engineering Design of Strategies for Winning Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma Competitions

In this paper, we investigate winning strategies for round-robin iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) competitions and evolutionary IPD competitions. Since the outcome of a single competition depends on the composition of the population of participants, we propose a statistical evaluation methodology that takes into account outcomes across varying compositions. We run several series of competitions in which the strategies of the participants are randomly chosen from a set of representative strategies. Statistics are gathered to evaluate the performance of each strategy. With this approach, the conditions for some well-known strategies to win a round-robin IPD competition are analyzed. We show that a strategy that uses simple rule-based identification mechanisms to explore and exploit the opponent outperforms well-known strategies such as tit-for-tat (TFT) in most round-robin competitions. Group strategies have an advantage over nongroup strategies in evolutionary IPD competitions. Group strategies adopt different strategies in interacting with kin members and nonkin members. A simple group strategy, Clique, which cooperates only with kin members, performs well in competing against well-known IPD strategies. We introduce several group strategies developed by combining Clique with winning strategies from round-robin competitions and evaluate their performance by adapting three parameters: sole survivor rate, extinction rate, and survival time. Simulation results show that these group strategies outperform well-known IPD strategies in evolutionary IPD competitions.

Is family special to the brain? An event-related fMRI study of familiar, familial, and self-face recognition

The face-processing network has evolved to respond differentially to different classes of faces depending on their relevance to the perceiver. For example, self-, familiar, and unknown faces are associated with activation in different neural substrates. Family should represent a special class of face stimuli that is of high relevance to individuals, because incorrect assignment of kinship can have dire consequences (e.g., incest, cuckoldry). Therefore evolution should have favored redundant mechanisms for detection of kin. We used fMRI to investigate the neural substrates associated with viewing faces of kin compared to other classes of faces (e.g., self-face, familiar face, and unknown face), and to examine the degree to which self-facial resemblance activated similar neural substrates. Contrasting kin faces with unknown faces activated substrates associated with self-face recognition, while comparing kin faces to friend faces activated posterior cingulate and cuneus. Similar posterior medial substrates were recruited when contrasting self-resembling faces with morphed faces of kin, suggesting these regions potentially represent computational processing about facial familiarity and identity. On the other hand, discrimination of self-resembling faces from familiar morphs activated anterior medial substrates (anterior cingulate cortex, ACC, medial prefrontal cortex, MPFC). These findings, and a region of interest (ROI) analysis, highlight the role of the extended face-processing network for discrimination of kin from familiar non-kin members of one's social group based on self-referent phenotypic cues.

An evolutionary psychology perspective on gift giving among young adults

AbstractWith evolutionary psychology used as the theoretical framework, two aspects of gift giving among young adults are investigated: (a) sex differences in motives for giving gifts to a romantic partner, and (b) the allocation of gift expenditures among various relations, including romantic partners, close friends, close kin, and distant kin members. As per the evolved sex differences in mating strategies, it is proposed and found that men report tactical motives for giving gifts to their romantic partners more frequently than women. Also, there are no sex differences in situational motives for giving gifts. In addition, women are aware that men use tactical motives more often; whereas men think that these motives are employed equally by both sexes. With regard to gift expenditures it is found that, for kin members, the amount spent on gifts increases with the genetic relatedness (r value) of the particular kin. When all relations (kin and nonkin members) are included, the allocation of gift expenditures were the highest to romantic partners, followed by those to close kin members and then to close friends. The latter finding is explained via the importance attached to the evolved psychological mechanisms linked to each of the above relations, namely, reproductive fitness (for partners), nonreproductive fitness (for close kin members), and reciprocal altruism (for close friends). © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.