This research investigates the ability of recent widows to use changes in their social networks as a coping strategy for dealing with this stressful life event. The approach is to study substitutions among network members, and not just changes in the aggregated characteristics of the network as a whole. Such substitutions among network members may be crucial, even when the total size of the network does not change, it they have the effect of increasing sources of support and decreasing sources of problems. The goals of this research are: 1) to identify the amount and sources of change in recent widows' social networks; 2) to determine how changes in contact with sources of support and sources of problems relate to changes in mental health; 3) to investigate whether the sources of support and sources of problems that affect adaptation are the same in the earlier and later phases of recent widowhood. Throughout, particular attention is paid to differences between family and friends as sources of specific forms of support and problems. Data are collected through three waves of face to face interviews at 6- month intervals, plus monthly telephone contacts, with separate groups who are followed through the first, second, or third year of their widowhood. Following each of these """"""""cohorts"""""""" through the experiences of a single year provides a large amount of data about the course of recent widowhood within a limited time frame. The sample is composed of 225 women, aged 60-80, who are located through state death records. Data at each face to face interview include: the membership in the widow's social network; the extent to which the members of her network serve as sources of support and sources of problems; the widow's satisfaction with her social network; and, outcome variables measuring depression, subjective well-being, loneliness, and self-reported physical health. Monthly telephone interviews on the membership of the social network provide the detailed data about network substitution. Analyses investigate: 1) which categories of network members are more likely to become more central or more peripheral in the network; 2) the extent to which decreasing the centrality of sources of problems and increasing the centrality of sources of support affects outcomes related to mental health; 3) whether there are differences among the first--year, second-year, and third-year cohorts of widows with regard to changes in networks and with regard to how changes in networks affect mental health outcomes.
| Zettel, Laura A; Rook, Karen S (2004) Substitution and compensation in the social networks of older widowed women. Psychol Aging 19:433-43 |
