Close emotional relationships in late life: further support for proactive aging in the social domain

The idea that age-related reductions in network size are proactively managed by older people is explored by examining the interrelationships among chronological age, network composition, social support, and feelings of social embeddedness (FSE) in a representative sample of 156 community-dwelling and institutionalized adults ages 70-104 years. Comparisons between people with and without nuclear families are made to explore the influence of opportunity structures on network size. Social networks of very old people are nearly half as large as those of old people, but the number of very close relationships does not differentiate age groups. Among Ss without living nuclear family members, the number of emotionally close social partners predicted FSE better than among Ss with nuclear family members. Findings provide evidence for proactive selection, compensation, and optimization toward the goal of emotional enhancement and social functioning in old age.