Peripheral Ties Research Articles

Marked by Association(s): A Social Network Approach to Investigating Mental Health-Related Associative Stigma.

With most scholarly attention directed toward understanding the stigma experiences of individuals with mental illness, less attention has been given to associative stigma: an understudied form of social exclusion and devaluation experienced by the social ties of stigmatized individuals. This study advances scholarly understanding of associative stigma by drawing on social network methods to better illuminate how the quantity and quality of social relationships with those dealing with mental illness impact experiences of perceived discrimination. Using a nationally representative sample from the General Social Survey, I find that (1) knowing more people with mental illness, (2) having more core (friends and family members) versus peripheral ties, and (3) having ties who are most at risk of facing public stigma themselves (e.g., stereotype-confirming ties) are associated with greater perceived discrimination experiences. Taken together, these findings shed light on how pervasive associative stigma truly is.

SOCIAL BRIDGING NETWORKS AND COGNITIVE AGING AMONG OLDER ADULTS: ORIGINS IN SOCIAL CONTEXTS, ROLES, AND ACTIVITIES

Abstract There is a strong link between social connectedness and cognitive aging, with recent research pointing to social bridging being a primary underlying mechanism. Social bridging may provide cognitive enrichment through interactions with expansive, heterogeneous, and loosely interconnected social networks of weaker, peripheral ties. Drawing on egocentric social network data and cognitive assessments of 436 older adults from the Social Networks and Alzheimer’s Disease (SNAD) study, this paper explores where social bridging networks come from. We used multivariate regression to examine whether a latent social bridging factor comprised of six structural variables (network size, density, effective size, diversity, strength of weakest tie, and sole bridging status) was associated with cognitive function and social conditions. Results indicate that social bridging is significantly associated with global cognitive function (B= 0.19; p<.0001), verbal memory (B=0.26; p<.0001), and episodic memory (B=0.21; p<.0001), consistent with prior studies. Older adults who are women (b=0.40; p<.001) and have more years of education (b=0.05; p<.05) have more access to social bridging. Among community and housing characteristics, only perceived community integration is significantly correlated with higher bridging (b=0.22; p<.05). With respect to social roles, being currently married (b=0.39; p<.001) and being a volunteer (b=0.58; p<.0001) were positively associated with bridging, while being a veteran predicted lower bridging (b=-0.86; p<.0001). Among indicators of social engagement, only number of contacts in one’s phone (in 100’s) was associated with bridging (b=.16; p<.0001). Findings provide insight into social roles and activities that can be leveraged to expand bridging and improve cognitive aging outcomes.

Public Stigma and Personal Networks: Confronting the Limitations of Unidimensional Measures of Social Contact.

One of the most promising directions for reducing mental illness stigma lies in Allport's contact theory, which suggests that intergroup interactions reduce stigma. Here, we argue that stigmatizing attitudes are driven by the nature, magnitude, and valence of community-based ties to people with mental illness (PMI), not simply their presence. Using the 2018 General Social Survey (N = 1,113), we compare network-based measures of contact to traditional survey indicators. We find that knowing someone with mental illness, or even number of people known, explains little about desire for social distance, perceptions of dangerousness, or endorsement of treatment coercion. However, having stronger relationships with more PMI, having more friends and family (but not more peripheral ties) with mental illness, and knowing people in treatment are associated with less stigma endorsement. In contrast, we find that exposure to PMI who are perceived as dangerous is associated with greater levels of stigma.

A first look at justice-involved women’s egocentric social networks

Despite the prominence of social support research in the offender rehabilitation literature, network methods have yet to be used to extend research beyond core network support to investigate resources accessible to justice-involved individuals from semi-regular interaction partners. This study is the first to apply egocentric (personal) social network methods to assess the composition and structure of justice-involved individuals’ networks. Using data from in-person interviews with 159 justice-involved women about their 1313 network members, four social layers – core, active peripheral, latent peripheral, and estranged ties – are delineated, described, and compared. Findings indicated: 1) there is an abundance of resources available to women in the intermediate and outer social layers of their networks – active and latent peripheral – that are ignored when scholars exclusively study core network members, 2) Latent peripheral ties (i.e., colleagues) provide access to resources associated with women’s correctional needs (i.e., legal advice, employment opportunities), and 3) relationships become decentralized and unstable – in terms of frequency of contact, geographical distance, and emotional closeness – from the inner to outer layers. Measuring the outer social layers is critical to identifying relationships that compromise reintegration (i.e., estranged) and altering network configurations to improve access to social capital and social support.

Links Between Rumination and Sleep Quality Among Older Adults: An Examination of the Role of Social Support

Rumination is a maladaptive coping strategy that gives rise to and sustains stress. Individuals who ruminate more, therefore, tend to sleep more poorly. Studies of rumination and sleep often neglect the role of social context. Social support may buffer the degree to which rumination predicts poorer sleep quality. Further, individuals with more support may ruminate less, resulting in better sleep quality. Finally, rumination may also erode social support, resulting in poorer sleep quality. The current study tested these three hypotheses within a sample of 131 partnered older adults. We examined support from spouses and friends/family separately. Findings indicated that spousal (not family/friend) support buffered the negative association between rumination and sleep quality. Neither type of support predicted rumination; however, rumination predicted lower levels of family/friend (not spousal) support. Thus, spousal support protects older adults’ sleep quality from rumination, and support from their peripheral ties may be more vulnerable to rumination.

Aging in Context: The Past, Present, and Future of Research on Older Adults’ Social Ties

This symposium will examine positive and negative aspects of older adults’ relationships and their impacts on health and well-being. We will begin by reviewing the past decade of research on family gerontology. Seidel’s meta-analysis of 995 articles will identify prominent theories and methods, as well as remaining research gaps. The subsequent presentations provide current, cutting-edge research. Marini examines how associations between rumination and sleep unfold within a social context. The findings highlight how spousal support protects older adults’ sleep quality from rumination, whereas support from family and friends is vulnerable to rumination. Using an actor-partner approach, Novak investigates the dynamics of support and control on health among older gay couples. Results reveal the benefits of support and risks of control for partners’ diet quality and depression. Ermer adopts a dyadic perspective to examine links between self-perceptions of aging and inflammation. Results highlight how wives’ inflammation is sensitive to husbands’ aging perceptions, particularly if marital strain is low. Finally, Wilson characterizes age-graded patterns of relationship narratives and their protective effects on emotional well-being. The findings demonstrate how older-adult couples’ narratives are less self- and present-focused, which helps explain protective linkages between age and negative mood. The symposium will conclude with remarks from discussant Katherine Fiori, a GSA Fellow and internationally recognized scholar on older adults’ social networks. She will synthesize the research and put forth her new theory about the importance of peripheral ties in later life to help direct the future of research on older adults within a social context.

Adults With Neurocognitive Disorders Who Reside Alone: Exploration of Nontraditional and Absent Support Systems

Research steadily demonstrates that family functions as the central component in the provision of care for persons with neurocognitive disorders. While it is clear family plays a critical role in the lives of adults with neurocognitive disorders, overlooked is the subpopulation who reside alone, but have no identifiable family to provide care. To address this gap, data were drawn from an interview-based NIA-funded study that focused on community-dwelling live-alone persons with dementia. Subanalyses were conducted on the interviews and field notes of live-alone adults with neurocognitive disorders who had no identifiable family (N=19) and their collaterals (e.g., neighbor, N=20). Using data-derived coding in ATLAS.ti., several themes emerged including transient informal care, consequential peripheral ties, and strained/traumatic nuclear relations. Themes will be discussed in detail. The present study expands the limited information on community-dwelling persons with dementia, providing a lens for understanding the complex intersection of aging and non-traditional/absent support networks.

Network recall among older adults with cognitive impairments

Although it is widely accepted that personal networks influence health and illness, network recall remains a major concern. This concern is heightened when studying a population that is vulnerable to cognitive decline. Given these issues, we use data from the Social Network in Alzheimer Disease project to explore similarities and discrepancies between the network perceptions of focal participants and study partners. By leveraging data on a sample of older adults with normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment, and early stage dementia, we explore how cognitive impairment influences older adults’ perceptions of their personal networks. We find that the average individual is more likely to omit weaker, peripheral ties from their self-reported networks than stronger, central ties. Despite observing only moderate levels of focal-partner corroboration across our sample, we find minimal evidence of perceptual differences across diagnostic groups. We offer two broad conclusions. First, self-reported network data, though imperfect, offer a reasonable account of the core people in one’s life. Second, our findings assuage concerns that cognitively impaired older adults have skewed perceptions of their personal networks.

Spirituality and Compassionate Love in Psychiatrists and Psychiatric Social Workers

Compassionate Love leads to the most social good for those who are its recipients. However, self-benefits may also occur as a result of experiencing compassionate love for others. Mental health professionals and clinicians have long noted the positive benefits of giving to others or having altruistic orientation toward others. For example, according to the helper therapy principle, identified in social work research done with self-help groups (Reissman, 1965) doing something for others is fulfilling and can increase the self-esteem of the person providing the help. A small amount of research, much of it conducted with older adults and cross-sectionally, indicates that giving to others is associated with life satisfaction, happiness, and self-esteem (Caprara & Steca, 2005; Simmons, 1991). However, almost no research has examined the outcomes for the self of experiencing pro-social emotions, such as empathy, sympathy, or compassionate love. Feeling intense pro-social emotion, distinct from engaging in a helping behavior, may also result in many positive benefits to the self, including increased self-esteem, general positive mood, and closeness to the targets of one's empathy or compassion. Furthermore, when people themselves become the target of another's compassionate love or empathy, they may experience increase in self-esteem and good mood.Compassionate love, however, is more encompassing and can be experienced for family, friends, peripheral ties, and all ofhumanity (Sprecher & Fehr, 2005). Compassionate love is a central feature in many religious traditions (Underwood, 2002) and is a self-giving, caring, love that values the other. It is associated, but not synonymous with, related concepts such as empathy, perspective-taking, altruism, social support, volunteerism, romantic love, and familial love. Although empathy has long been viewed as a major factor in promoting prosocial behavior toward others (Davis, 1996; Dovidio & Penner, 2001) compassionate love can be considered to be a more long-lasting, pro-social, emotion directed toward others, and thus may be more likely to lead to altruistic behavior (Sprecher & Fehr, 2005). Sprecher and Fehr have defined compassionate love as: an attitude toward other(s), either close others or strangers or all ofhumanity; containing feelings, cognitions, and behaviors that are focused on caring, concern, tenderness, and orientation toward supporting, helping, and understanding the other(s), particularly when the other(s) is (are) perceived to be suffering or in need.Recently, a call has been made for more scientific study of compassionate (or altruistic) love (Post et al., 2002). In a recent set of studies, Fehr and Sprecher (2004) using a prototype analysis (Fehr, 1988) examined the key features of compassionate love reflected in laymen conceptions. Through various studies, including social cognition tasks such as reaction times to features of love, it was found that compassionate love is a complex and multifaceted concept. The features that laymen regard as most central to the concept are those that are considered to be central to love in general trust, caring, honesty. The researchers concluded that what is unique to compassionate love is the inclusion of features that depict selflessness, putting the other head of oneself, making sacrifices for the other, and so on (Fehr & Sprecher, 2004).Scientists also have recently measured compassionate love, as attitude directed toward others, in order to examine the correlates of the experience. Sprecher and Fehr developed a compassionate love scale that can be used, in different versions, to measure compassionate love forhumanity/strangers, close others (family & friends), and a specific close other. They found that people experience compassionate love to a greater degree for close others than for strangers/humanity, that scores on the compassionate love scale are correlated positively with providing social support for others and with volunteerism, and that spirituality and religiosity are associated positively with experiencing compassionate love, particularly for humanity and strangers. …

Spirituality and Compassionate Love in Nuns and Philanthropists

Compassionate Love leads to the most social good for those who are its recipients. However, self-benefits may also occur as a result of experiencing compassionate love for others. Mental health professionals and clinicians have long noted the positive benefits of giving to others or having altruistic orientation toward others. For example, according to the helper therapy principle, identified in social work research done with self-help groups (Reissman, 1965), doing something for others is fulfilling and can increase the self-esteem of the person providing the help. A small amount of research, much of it conducted with older adults and cross-sectionally, indicates that giving to others is associated with life satisfaction, happiness, and self-esteem (Caprara & Steca, 2005; Simmons, 1991). However, almost no research has examined the outcomes for the self of experiencing pro-social emotions, such as empathy, sympathy, or compassionate love. Feeling intense pro-social emotion, distinct from engaging in a helping behavior, may also result in many positive benefits to the self, including increased self-esteem, general positive mood, and closeness to the targets of one's empathy or compassion. Furthermore, when people themselves become the target of another's compassionate love or empathy, they may experience increase in self-esteem and good mood.Compassionate love, however, is more encompassing and can be experienced for family, friends, peripheral ties, and all ofhumanity (Sprecher & Fehr, 2005). Compassionate love is a central feature in many religious traditions (Underwood, 2002) and is a self-giving, caring, love that values the other. It is associated, but not synonymous with, related concepts such as empathy, perspective-taking, altruism, social support, volunteerism, romantic love, and familial love. Although empathy has long been viewed as a major factor in promoting prosocial behavior toward others (Davis, 1996; Dovidio & Penner, 2001), compassionate love can be considered to be a more long-lasting, pro-social, emotion directed toward others, and thus may be more likely to lead to altruistic behavior (Sprecher & Fehr, 2005). Sprecher and Fehr have defined compassionate love as: an attitude toward other(s), either close others or strangers or all of humanity; containing feelings, cognitions, and behaviors that are focused on caring, concern, tenderness, and orientation toward supporting, helping, and understanding the other(s), particularly when the other(s) is (are) perceived to be suffering or in need.Recently, a call has been made for more scientific study of compassionate (or altruistic) love (Post et al., 2002). In a recent set of studies, Fehr and Sprecher (2004), using a prototype analysis (Fehr, 1988), examined the key features of compassionate love reflected in laymen conceptions. Through various studies, including social cognition tasks such as reaction times to features of love, it was found that compassionate love is a complex and multifaceted concept. The features that laymen regard as most central to the concept are those that are considered to be central to love in general trust, caring, honesty. The researchers concluded that what is unique to compassionate love is the inclusion of features that depict selflessness, putting the other head of oneself, making sacrifices for the other, and so on (Fehr & Sprecher, 2004).Scientists also have recently measured compassionate love, as attitude directed toward others, in order to examine the correlates of the experience. Sprecher and Fehr developed a compassionate love scale that can be used, in different versions, to measure compassionate love for humanity/strangers, close others (family and friends), and a specific close other. They found that people experience compassionate love to a greater degree for close others than for strangers/humanity, that scores on the compassionate love scale are correlated positively with providing social support for others and with volunteerism, and that spirituality and religiosity are associated positively with experiencing compassionate love, particularly for humanity and strangers. …

The Best of Both Worlds? Online Ties and the Alternating Use of Social Network Sites in the Context of Migration

While an ever-growing body of research is concerned with user behavior on individual social network sites (SNSs)—mostly Facebook—studies addressing an alternating use of two or more SNS are rare. Here, we investigate the relationship between alternating SNS use and social capital in the context of migration. Alternating SNS use avoids some of the problems associated with large networks located on one site; in particular the management of different social or cultural spheres. Not only does this strategy hold potential for increased social capital, it also provides a particular incentive for migrants faced with the challenge of staying in touch with back home and managing a new social environment. Two survey studies are presented that focus on the relationship between alternating SNS use and online ties in a migrant context involving Indian nationals. Study 1 looked at migration within India, whereas Study 2 compared international with domestic SNS users. In both studies, alternating SNS use added to the prediction of online network size and accounted for differences in network size found for migrant and non-migrant users. Differences were due to the number of peripheral ties, rather than core ties. Findings suggest that alternating SNS use may constitute a compensatory strategy that helps to overcome lower levels of socializing represented through a single SNS.

The Labeling Paradox

Although research supports the stigma and labeling perspective, empirical evidence also indicates that a social safety net remains intact for those with mental illness, recalling the classic "sick role" concept. Here, insights from social networks theory are offered as explanation for these discrepant findings. Using data from individuals experiencing their first contact with the mental health treatment system, the effects of diagnosis and symptoms on social networks and stigma experiences are examined. The findings suggest that relative to those with less severe affective disorders, individuals with severe diagnoses and more visible symptoms of mental illness have larger, more broadly functional networks, as well as more supporters who are aware of and sympathetic toward the illness situation. However, those with more severe diagnoses are also vulnerable to rejection and discrimination by acquaintances and strangers. These findings suggest that being formally labeled with a mental illness may present a paradox, simultaneously initiating beneficial social processes within core networks and detrimental ones among peripheral ties.

The European Far North of Russia and Its Territorial Constructions in the Sixteenth–Twenty-First Centuries

This article addresses the problem of the homogeneity and structure of the identity of the European Far North of Russia. The author comes to the conclusion that the structure of this territory has been determined since the sixteenth century by a rift between the Kola North and the Arkhangelsk North. While this rift deteriorated or was partially healed at different times, the differentiation of the European Far North of Russia into two territorial segments persisted over the periods of Muscovy, the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union. Although the Kola Peninsula was integrated for two centuries (1708–1921) into the vast province with a centre in the city of Arkhangelsk, it not only preserved features of its identity, but in fact managed to strengthen them, which eventually led to the administrative separation of the Kola North from the Arkhangelsk Province. The development of the two northern territories has been accompanied by competition, which is still there to a large extent. The phenomenon of the division of the Russian Far North in two parts is treated as a consequence of the importance which meridional strategic ties between the centre and the outlying northern areas acquired in the Russian State, in contrast to the weaker latitudinal peripheral ties between the provinces.

Consequential Strangers and Peripheral Ties: The Importance of Unimportant Relationships

Social networks in the 21st century include a wide array of partners. Most individuals report a few core ties (primarily family) and hundreds of peripheral ties. Weak ties differ from intimate ties in emotional quality, stability, density (i.e., who knows whom), and status hierarchies. Undoubtedly, close ties are essential for human survival. Yet peripheral ties may enhance life quality and allow people to flourish. Weak ties may serve (a) distinct functions from intimate ties (e.g., information, resources, novel behaviors, and diversion), (b) parallel functions to intimate ties (e.g., defining identity and positions within social hierarchies, helping when a family member is ill, providing a sense of familiarity), and (c) reciprocal influences between peripheral partners and family members (e.g., bioecological theory). Family science might benefit from investigating consequential strangers who pepper daily life.

Parents' searches for child care and the design of information services

This article reports selected findings from a study of the process by which urban parents search for child care. Analyses of interview data indicate that (a) parents used informal sources of information to a considerably greater extent than formal sources, (b) the general pattern was to begin the search with relatives and close friends and gradually move out to more peripheral ties, (c) there does not appear to be an effective informal system of neighbors or community persons who matched parents with child care providers, and (d) there was no single or several sources that were outstanding in effectiveness for a large proportion of parents. The article sets forth implications of these data for the design of child care information and referral services in urban settings.