Social Network Changes and Life Events Across the Life Span: A Meta-Analysis
Social Network Changes and Life Events Across the Life Span: A Meta-Analysis
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DOI：
10.1037/a0028601
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发表时间：
2013-01-01
影响因子：
22.4
通讯作者：
Neyer, Franz J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Wrzus, Cornelia;Haenel, Martha;Neyer, Franz J.
对于对社会关系感兴趣的研究人员和从业者来说，问题仍然是社交网络通常有多大，以及它们的规模和构成在成年后会发生怎样的变化。在社会情绪选择性理论和社会护航理论预测的基础上，我们利用277项研究对年龄相关的社会网络变化和生活事件对社会网络的影响进行了元分析，研究对象为从青春期到老年的177,635人。横向和纵向研究一致表明：(A)全球社会网络在成年之前一直在增加，然后稳步减少；(B)个人网络和友谊网络在整个成年期都在减少；(C)家庭网络的规模从青春期到老年是稳定的；(D)与同事或邻居的其他网络只在特定的年龄范围内重要。对特定年龄发生的生活事件的研究表明，网络变化与与年龄相关的网络变化相似。主持人分析发现，网络评估的类型影响了报告的全球、个人和家庭网络的规模。个人和友谊网络的网络规模出现了时期效应，在过去35年中，这两个网络的规模有所减少。总而言之，这些发现与这样一种观点是一致的，即与年龄相关的规范社交网络变化的一部分是由于与年龄相关的规范生活事件。我们讨论了这些规范的社会网络发展模式如何影响社会、进化、文化和人格心理学的研究。
For researchers and practitioners interested in social relationships, the question remains as to how large social networks typically are, and how their size and composition change across adulthood. On the basis of predictions of socioemotional selectivity theory and social convoy theory, we conducted a meta-analysis on age-related social network changes and the effects of life events on social networks using 277 studies with 177,635 participants from adolescence to old age. Cross-sectional as well as longitudinal studies consistently showed that (a) the global social network increased up until young adulthood and then decreased steadily, (b) both the personal network and the friendship network decreased throughout adulthood, (c) the family network was stable in size from adolescence to old age, and (d) other networks with coworkers or neighbors were important only in specific age ranges. Studies focusing on life events that occur at specific ages, such as transition to parenthood, job entry, or widowhood, demonstrated network changes similar to such age-related network changes. Moderator analyses detected that the type of network assessment affected the reported size of global, personal, and family networks. Period effects on network sizes occurred for personal and friendship networks, which have decreased in size over the last 35 years. Together the findings are consistent with the view that a portion of normative, age-related social network changes are due to normative, age-related life events. We discuss how these patterns of normative social network development inform research in social, evolutionary, cultural, and personality psychology.