Social Networks, Role-Relationships, and Personality in Older Adulthood

This article examines the implications of personality traits for social network connectedness in older adulthood, across different social relationships.

This article uses data from the National Social Life Health and Aging Project (NSHAP), a nationally-representative, longitudinal survey of community-dwelling older Americans (N = 2,261). Network characteristics were predicted using Poisson and negative binomial regression (for network size) as well as multilevel identity-linked and ordinal-logit-linked regressions (for tie strength).

Extraversion and agreeableness were associated with tie strength, and extraversion was weakly associated with friend network size. Few trait-by-role-relationship interactions emerged, although more-neurotic persons were more likely to talk about their health with friends.

Personality traits impact the strength of social network ties in older adulthood. However, traits may have minimal impact on network size. The consequences of personality also appear to be largely consistent across different social relationships.