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Updated: May 12, 2026
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Assessment of Social Interaction Behaviors
Published on: February 25, 2011
Personal effort in social relationships across adulthood
Frieder R Lang1, Jenny Wagner, Cornelia Wrzus
1Institute of Psychogerontology, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany. frieder.lang@fau.de
Psychology and Aging
|April 17, 2013
Summary
Older adults invest more personal effort in relationships, enhancing emotional closeness. This effort is key to proactively shaping social connections throughout adulthood, regardless of family structure.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Sociology
Background:
- Understanding how individuals maintain social relationships across the lifespan is crucial for well-being.
- Research has yet to fully explore age-related differences in relationship maintenance effort and its correlates.
- Family-life contexts may influence the dynamics of social relationship maintenance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate age differences in personal effort for relationship maintenance in early-midlife and old-age adults.
- To examine the association between personal effort, emotional closeness, and perceived reciprocity across different age groups.
- To explore how these associations vary across diverse family-life contexts.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study involving 658 participants (early-midlife and old-age adults).
- Data collected via questionnaires on ego-centered social networks, relationship quality, conflict, and personal characteristics.
- Participants were categorized into three life contexts: biological parents, blended family parents, and childless individuals.
Main Results:
- Personal effort in social relationships was more pronounced and more strongly linked to emotional closeness in old age compared to early midlife.
- Perceived effort was similarly associated with reciprocity and conflict in both age groups.
- These associations remained consistent across different family-life contexts.
Conclusions:
- Personal effort plays a significant role in maintaining emotional closeness, particularly in older adulthood.
- Individuals proactively shape their social worlds through invested effort in relationships.
- The findings highlight the enduring importance of personal investment in social connections across the adult lifespan.
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