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Emotional support across adulthood: A 60-year study of men’s social networks

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Re: Emotional support across adulthood: A 60-year study of men’s social networks

#25

Post by thih9 »

> However, generalized responses, such as “family” or “friends,” as well as mentions of non-human sources like pets, were excluded from formal analyses.

Pets - fine; but rejecting generalized plural responses might mean rejecting cases where people genuinely had more emotional support providers.

Re: Emotional support across adulthood: A 60-year study of men’s social networks

#26

Post by Spivak »

jfengel wrote: post #5
mmastrac wrote: post #4

"Emotional support networks among men shrink by 50% between the ages of 30 and 90, reflecting an average decrease from two to one emotional support providers" Or, to rephrase, "Men grow up with an average of two emotional support providers and lose one in mid to late adulthood"

Any idea how many women have? The form of this study was specific to men and very long-running, so I don't know where you'd get comparable data. Still, it would be interesting to take a stab at it. Is it 2? 1? 10?

I don't feel very exceptional in terms of my social network among my peers and I would say probably 20-25. I think it mostly comes from emotional support being pretty much table stakes for female friendships. I feel like most "biological" explanations are bunk but like if you're gonna be friends you're gonna be friends when you're on your period and going through it.

Re: Emotional support across adulthood: A 60-year study of men’s social networks

#28

Post by OldGuyInTheClub »

d1sxeyes wrote: post #19

> This research was limited by its all-male, predominantly White sample and its reliance on self-reported data. Additionally, the quality of emotional support and its impacts on well-being were not assessed. So: we don’t know if it’s just men, we don’t know if it’s true for all ethnicities or just white men, it’s a reduction from two to one, I don’t mean to be dismissive, but someone got funding for this?

Of course, "Further research is required." ;-)

More telling, "This study utilized a unique longitudinal dataset drawn from a sample of 235 men who were originally recruited as Harvard University students between 1939 and 1942."

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