Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-m9kch Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T05:42:43.527Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Health as status? Network relations and social structure in an American retirement community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2014

MARKUS H. SCHAFER
MARKUS H. SCHAFER*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, Canada.
*
Address for correspondence: Markus Schafer, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 725 Spadina Ave., Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 2J4. E-mail: markus.schafer@utoronto.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examines social ties within a community of retirement residents to examine how health influences patterns of social interaction. Drawing from a social fields perspective, I anticipated that health would emerge as a key form of status. I hypothesised that this would manifest in the healthiest residents receiving a disproportionate share of social tie nominations, and that the network would be characterised by distinct patterns of health-based sorting. Exponential random graph models were used to disentangle individual, dyadic and higher-order influences on reports of interaction. Findings support the main hypotheses, pointing to the importance of health as a basis of micro-level social structure in contexts where it is a scarce and valued resource. I urge further research to trace out these implications in other unique settings.

Keywords

social networksretirement communityhealthstatushomophilysocial fields
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 79 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainlay, S. C., Singleton, R. Jr and Swigert, V. L. 1992. Aging and religious participation: reconsidering the effects of health. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 31, 2, 175–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ali, M. M., Amialchuk, A. and Rizzo, J. R. 2012. The influence of body weight on social network ties among adolescents. Economics & Human Biology, 10, 1, 20–34.Google ScholarPubMed
American Association of Homes and Services for the Aged 2007. http://www.aahsa.org/aging_services/default.asp#1 [Accessed 25 February 2008].Google Scholar
Andrews, G. J., Evans, J. and Wiles, J. L. 2013. Re-spacing and re-placing gerontology: relationality and affect. Ageing & Society, 33, 8, 1339–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayalon, L. and Green, V. 2012. Grief in the initial adjustment process to the continuing care retirement community. Journal of Aging Studies, 26, 4, 394–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berkman, L. F., Glass, T., Brissette, I. and Seeman, T. E. 2000. From social integration to health: Durkheim in the new millennium. Social Science & Medicine, 51, 6, 843–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bottero, W. and Crossley, N. 2011. Worlds, fields, and networks: Becker, Bourdieu, and the structure of social networks. Cultural Sociology, 5, 1, 99–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. English translation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1989. Social space and symbolic power. Sociological Theory, 7, 1, 14–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butts, C. T. 2003. Network inference, error, and informant (in)accuracy: a Bayesian approach. Social Networks, 25, 2, 103–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cicirelli, V. G. 2002. Fear of death in older adults. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 57, 4, 358–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Collins, R. 2000. Situational stratification: a micro–macro theory of inequality. Sociological Theory, 18, 1, 17–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornwell, B. 2009 a. Good health and the bridging of structural holes. Social Networks, 31, 1, 92–103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cornwell, B. 2009 b. Network bridging potential in later life: Life-course experiences and social network position. Journal of Aging and Health, 21, 1, 129–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cornwell, B., Schumm, B. L. and Laumann, E. O. 2008. The social connectedness of older adults: a national profile. American Sociological Review, 73, 2, 185–203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crosnoe, R., Frank, K. and Mueller, A. S. 2008. Gender, body size, and social relations in American high schools. Social Forces, 86, 3, 1189–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crossley, N. 2001. The Social Body: Habit, Identity, and Desire. Sage, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiMatteo, M. R. 2004. Social support and patient adherence to medical treatment: a meta-analysis. Health Psychology, 23, 2, 207–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dittmann-Kohli, F. 1990. The construction of meaning in old age: possibilities and constraints. Ageing & Society, 10, 3, 279–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feld, S. L. and Carter, W. C. 2002. Detecting measurement bias in respondent reports of personal networks. Social Networks, 24, 4, 365–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gamliel, T. and Hazan, H. 2006. The meaning of stigma: identity construction in two old-age institutions. Ageing & Society, 26, 3, 355–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodreau, S. M., Kitts, J. A. and Morris, M. 2009. Birds of a feather, or friend of a friend? Using exponential random graph models to investigate adolescent social networks. Demography, 46, 1, 103–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gould, R. V. 2002. The origins of status hierarchies: a formal theory and empirical test. American Journal of Sociology, 107, 5, 1143–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haas, S. A., Schaefer, D. R. and Kornienko, O. 2010. Health and the structure of adolescent social networks. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 51, 4, 424–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Handcock, M. S., Hunter, D. R., Butts, C. T., Goodreau, S. M. and Morris, M. 2003. Statnet: Software Tools for the Statistical Modeling of Network Data. Available online at http://www.statnetproject.org. [Accessed 30 August 2010].Google Scholar
Hays, R. D., Sherbourne, C. D. and Mazel, R. M. 1993. The Rand 36-item health survey 1.0. Health Economics, 2, 3, 217–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hogue, A. and Steinberg, L. 1995. Homophily of internalized distress in adolescent peer groups. Developmental Psychology, 31, 6, 897–906.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howe, A. L., Jones, A. E. and Tilse, C. 2013. What's in a name? Similarities and differences in international terms and meanings for older peoples’ housing with services. Ageing & Society, 33, 4, 547–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, D. R. 2007. Curved exponential family models for social networks. Social Networks, 29, 2, 216–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jaeger, M. M. 2011. ‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’? Returns to physical attractiveness over the life course. Social Forces, 89, 3, 983–93.Google Scholar
Lennartsson, C. 1999. Social ties and health among the very old in Sweden. Research on Aging, 21, 5, 657–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mortensen, W. B., Oliffe, J. L., Miller, W. C. and Backman, C. L. 2012. Grey spaces: the wheeled fields of residential care. Sociology of Health & Illness, 34, 3, 315–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Papachristos, A. V., Hureau, D. M. and Braga, A. A. 2013. The corner and the crew: the influence of geography and social networks on gang violence. American Sociological Review, 78, 3, 417–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, B. L. 2012. Coming untied? Narrative accounts of social network dynamics from first-time mental health clients. Sociology of Health & Illness, 34, 8, 1125–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perry, B. L. and Pescosolido, B. A. 2012. Social network dynamics and biographical disruption: the case of ‘first-timers’ with mental illness. American Journal of Sociology, 118, 1, 134–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivera, M. T., Soderstrom, S. B. and Uzzi, B. 2010. Dynamics of dyads in social networks: assortative, relational, and proximity mechanisms. Annual Review of Sociology, 36, 91–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robins, G., Snijders, T., Wang, P., Handcock, M. and Pattison, P. 2007. Recent developments in exponential random graph (p*) models for social networks. Social Networks, 29, 2, 192–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowe, J. W. and Kahn, R. L. 1987. Human aging: usual and successful. Science, 237, 4811, 143–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schaefer, D. R. 2012. Homophily through nonreciprocity: results of an experiment. Social Forces, 90, 4, 1271–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaefer, D. R., Kornienko, O. and Fox, A. M. 2011. Misery does not love company: network selection mechanisms and depression homophily. American Sociological Review, 76, 5, 764–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shippee, T. P. 2008. Social cohesion in communities with high residential mobility: the paradox of aging in place. Dissertation thesis, Department of Sociology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.Google Scholar
Shippee, T. P. 2009. ‘But I am not moving’: perspectives in transitions within a continuing care retirement community. The Gerontologist, 49, 3, 418–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shippee, T. P. 2012. On the edge: balancing health, participation, and autonomy to maintain active independent living in two retirement facilities. Journal of Aging Studies, 26, 1, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverstein, M. and Abramson, A. 2008. How baby-boomers in the United States anticipate their aging future: implications for the silver market. In Kohlbacher, F. and Herstatt, C. (eds), The Silver Market Phenomenon. Springer, Berlin, 55–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, K. P. and Christakis, N. A. 2008. Social networks and health. Annual Review of Sociology, 34, 405–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thoits, P. A. 2011. Mechanisms linking social ties and support to physical and mental health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 52, 2, 145–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Uchino, B. 2006. Social support and health: a review of physiological processes potentially underlying links to disease outcomes. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 29, 4, 377–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Umberson, D. 1987. Family status and health behaviors: social control as a dimension of social integration. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 28, 3, 306–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wasserman, S. and Faust, K. 1994. Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar