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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 12, 2026

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test

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Relationship processes within the social convoy: structure, function, and social goals.

Shannon T Mejía¹, Karen Hooker

¹Correspondence should be addressed to Shannon T. Mejía, Human Development and Family Sciences, School of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences, Oregon State University, 410 Waldo Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331-5102.

The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences

|April 12, 2013

Summary

Older adults

Keywords:

Friends and family Microlongitudinal Relationship quality Social convoy Social goals Within-person process.

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Last Updated: May 12, 2026

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Area of Science:

Gerontology
Social Psychology
Health Psychology

Background:

Social convoys are crucial for older adults' health and well-being.
Understanding the dynamic interplay between social relationships and goal achievement in later life is essential.
Little is known about how relationship quality within social convoys influences goal attainment.

Purpose of the Study:

To examine the within-person covariation between daily social goal progress and contact satisfaction.
To investigate how variations in social convoy composition moderate the relationship between contact satisfaction and goal progress.
To explore the utility of daily contact satisfaction measures in understanding older adults' social processes.

Main Methods:

A 100-day web-based microlongitudinal study involving 99 older adults (ages 53-88).
Participants logged daily social goal progress and contact satisfaction with their five closest social partners.
Multilevel analysis was employed to examine the data.

Main Results:

Social goal progress was higher on days with above-average contact satisfaction.
The association between contact satisfaction and goal progress was stronger for individuals with family-intensive social convoys.
Daily contact satisfaction explained more variance in goal progress than standard relationship quality measures.

Conclusions:

Daily contact satisfaction provides valuable insights into the functioning of older adults' social convoys.
These findings complement traditional measures of relationship quality.
The way older adults engage with close relationships is influenced by the structure of their social networks.