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For decades, scholars have wrestled with the assumption that old age is characterized by social isolation. However, there has been no systematic, nationally representative evaluation of this possibility in terms of social network connectedness. In this article, we develop a profile of older adults' social integration with respect to nine dimensions of interpersonal networks and voluntary associations. We use new data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a population-based study of non-institutionalized older Americans ages 57 to 85, conducted in 2005 to 2006. Results suggest that among older adults, age is negatively related to network size, closeness to network members, and number of non-primary-group ties. On the other hand, age is positively related to frequency of socializing with neighbors, religious participation, and volunteering. In addition, age has a U-shaped relationship with volume of contact with network members. These findings are inconsistent with the view that old age has a universal negative influence on social connectedness. Instead, life-course factors have divergent consequences for different forms of social connectedness. Indeed, some later-life transitions, such as retirement and bereavement, may prompt greater connectedness. We conclude by urging increased dialogue between social gerontological and social network research.
Much has been made of the prospect of social isolation in later life. Several perspectives depict old age as a time of loneliness and rolelessness. For example, Gumming and Henry (1961) gave a classic warning about older adults' irreversible descent into isolation through voluntary social disengagement. Subsequent work has repeatedly challenged such accounts by portraying aging in later life as an identity struggle, a constant effort to maintain social roles and activity in the face of difficult laterlife transitions (Atchley 1989; Moen, DempsterMcClain, and Williams 1992; Neugarten, Havighurst, andlbbin 1968;Thoits 1992). Since this identity struggle is crucial to maintaining mental and physical well-being, social gerontologists conclude that ongoing integration is key to "successful aging" (Rowe and Kahn 1998).
Work on aging has been moving away from conceptualizations of social integration that focus on roles and activities and toward more network-oriented treatments (Antonucci and Akiyama 1995; Crosnoe and Elder 2002; Lang and Carstensen 1994; Morgan 1988; Shaw et al. 2007). Unfortunately, information about older adults' integration through social networks is available only in small pieces-through research that is...