Networked lives: Probing the influence of social networks on the life course

Social network research is well-equipped to help life course scholars produce a deeper and more nuanced approach to the principle of "linked lives," one of the cornerstones of the field. In this issue on Networked Lives, nine original articles and two commentaries generate new theories, empirical findings and methodological applications at the intersection of the fields of social networks and life course research. In this introduction, we reflect on these advances, highlighting key findings and challenges that await scholars in building more robust synergy between the two fields. Social networks emerge as key structural forces in life courses, yet there is much to learn about the mechanisms through which their effects on people's lives come about. There is a need to study further how networks evolve through the rhythm of life events, and to analyze broader and more complex networks that capture the roles and influences of relations beyond intimate or family ties. These papers demonstrate that there is much to be gained in probing how individuals are linked to and unlinked from others over time, and in carrying conceptual and methodological advances across social network and life course studies.

"Unlinked lives": Elaboration of a concept and its significance for the life course

This article introduces the concept of "unlinked lives" and illustrates its significance for scholarship on the life course. There are many lessons to be learned about human interdependence by focusing not on relationships that are formed and then maintained, but instead on relationships that are lost or ended by choice or circumstance, such as through changes in institutional affiliations, social status and positions or places. Unlinked lives carry important social meanings, are embedded in complex social processes, and bring consequences for the wellbeing of individuals, families, and societies. To develop this concept, we put forward nine key propositions related to when and how unlinkings happen as processes, as well as some of the consequences of being unlinked as a status or outcome. The coupling of "unlinked lives" with "linked lives" offers a crucial avenue for advancing life course theories and research, integrating scholarship across multiple life periods and transitions, and bridging the two now-distinct traditions of intellectual inquiry on the life course and on social networks.

Personal network dynamics across the life course: A relationship-related structural approach

Building on Georg Simmel's concept of "form", the article presents a relationship related structural concept of social relationships that specifically accounts for opportunities and constraints resulting from the fact that relationships are solidified patterns of interaction that, once established, can develop a power of their own (inertia, momentum) that cannot easily be influenced by the involved actors. In this "relationship-related structural approach", social relationships or "forms" can be understood as specific constellations of "basic structural properties", i.e. specifications of various aspects of quantity, of time, of space, of similarity, and including also a certain degree of freedom to enter or quit a relationship, knowledge about one another, and types and degree of institutionalization. The specification of these structural properties impacts the functional capacity of relationships, as well as the dynamics of both relationships and networks, especially the ways in which relationships are formed, maintained, or lost. Referring to various life course transitions from different phases of the life course, it is demonstrated how this approach helps to better understand the dynamics of social relationships and networks and the impact of life events on personal relationships across the life course. Finally, implications of this novel perspective for life course and network research are discussed.

Advances and innovations in methods for collecting egocentric network data

This article reviews recent methodological research that bears on the collection of egocentric network data. It begins with background on setting egocentric network boundaries and principal types of instruments that obtain information about such networks. It then discusses innovations in data collection and studies of data quality. The bulk of these address questions about "name generator" instruments that obtain information about the alters and relationships in a subject's network. Among topics receiving substantial attention in recent research are mitigation of respondent burden, interviewer effects, survey mode, and the performance of name generators in longitudinal studies. Potentially fruitful innovations supplement conventional question-and-answer surveys with visual elements that promise to better engage respondents and reduce the demands that name generator-based data collection poses. We close by highlighting both accomplishments of this body of research and some open issues.

EXPECTATIONS, ROLES, AND EXPERIENCES OF GRANDPARENT-CAREGIVERS OF CHILDREN WITH RARE DISEASE

Grandparenting can be a rewarding and health-promoting experience for older adults. However, grandparent-caregivers often experience greater stress and poorer health relative to non-caregiving grandparents. Further, little is known about grandparents caring for a child with a rare, chronic illness. This study aimed to extend knowledge of the expectations, roles, and experiences of grandparents providing care to a child affected with an inherited metabolic condition. The sample included 23 grandparent-mother dyads from the Inherited Diseases, Caregiving, and Social Networks Study. The grandparent sub-sample ranged from 49 to 79 years of age (Mage = 64), the majority were female (83%) and married (74%), and almost half (48%) were retired. Social network assessments were analyzed to determine concordance between mother- and grandparent-reports of grandparents’ role in the child’s caregiving network. Fifteen mother-grandparent dyads (65%) agreed on grandparents’ role in the child’s network, with the majority of those (93%) considering the grandparent to be very close and important (versus less close or excluded from the caregiving network). Grandparents whose self-reports of their role in their child’s caregiving networks were consistent with mother-reports appeared more likely to report that they spend enough time caregiving than those whose reports were inconsistent. Content analysis of grandparents’ interviews provided supporting information about the joys and regrets of their grandparenting experience and perspectives on caregiving expectations. This research leverages multi-informant social network and qualitative data to illuminate grandparents’ role in the caregiving networks of chronically ill children and adaptation to non-normative grandparenting experiences.

What autobiographical narratives tell us about the life course. Contributions of qualitative sequential analytical methods

The paper discusses the benefits of certain qualitative approaches to data collection and analysis for research into the life course. These methods of data collection (i.e., the extempore narrative interview by Schütze) and sequential analytical approaches of data analysis (i.e., narration analysis by Schütze and documentary analysis by Bohnsack and Nohl) provide unique insight that can address some of the current challenges and open questions of life course research. This is because the sequential analysis of autobiographical narrative interviews makes it possible to distinguish between reported and experienced life history and to reconstruct tacit knowledge and action orientations, which are partly unconscious. In particular, autobiographical extempore narrations offer unique avenues to understanding biographical decision-making and the layers of biographical experiences and planning, to investigating the question of how individuals link different spheres of life, and to exploring different types of agency and thus driving forces of a person's life course. To illustrate the potential of these methods, data from a project on modes of living in the German middle class are presented that illuminate biographical decision-making in the transition to the labor market.

Social Dimensions of Personal Growth following Widowhood: A Three-Wave Study

BACKGROUND

Losing one's spouse is one of the most stressful life events in old age, yet research on positive consequences of overcoming critical life events describes experiences of personal growth for survivors.

OBJECTIVE

Because prior studies conceptualized personal growth as a stable accomplishment of an individual, our study challenges this assumption by examining trajectories of personal growth and its links to two aspects of social support. We assume that personal growth is boosted by heightened levels of loss-related social support seeking during early years of widowhood. However, toward the later stages in the bereavement process, we expect personal growth to be fostered by perceived social embeddedness.

DATA AND METHOD

Data stem from a survey on relationships in later life conducted in 2012, 2014, and 2016 in Switzerland. The final analytical sample consisted of 508 individuals aged 50+ years, who were on average 73 years old and widowed for about 3 years at baseline. Longitudinal explorative factor analyses yielded a 3-factorial solution for personal growth. Random-effects group-specific growth curves were used to examine the trajectories of personal growth and its subdimensions, by different levels of loss-related social support seeking and embeddedness in a supportive network, over the first 8 years of widowhood. Our analyses included time-invariant and time-varying covariates.

RESULTS

On average, our findings point to a stable trajectory of personal growth after having become widowed in later life. Group-specific analyses, however, showed different courses in the trajectories for specific subdimensions of personal growth - particularly for spiritual change and appreciation of life. Average marginal effects also yielded group differences by loss-related support seeking in the level of personal growth over time, which highlight the importance of social support seeking, rather than social embeddedness, at all stages of the bereavement process.

CONCLUSION

Findings underline the importance of a longitudinal and linked-lives perspective on personal growth and point to different pathways regarding its various subdimensions. Future research should further examine the validity of personal growth scales for other populations and consider the possibility to experience personal growth already during the anticipation of a traumatic event (e.g., in the case of long-term caretaking).