Relationships with family members, but not friends, decrease likelihood of death

 

For older adults, having more or closer family members in one's social network decreases his or her likelihood of death, but having a larger or closer group of friends does not, finds a new study that will be presented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA). 
一项将在美国社会学协会（ASA）第111届年会上发表的新研究发现，对于老年人来说，社交网络中有更多或更亲密的家庭成员会降低他或她的死亡风险，但有更多或更亲密的朋友群则不会。

 

Titled, "Social Relationships and Mortality in Older Adulthood," the study used nationally representative data from the 2005/2006 and 2010/2011 survey waves of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), to investigate which aspects of social networks are most important for postponing¹ mortality. Mortality of wave one respondents, who were 57 to 85-years old, was assessed at wave two.

 

In the first wave, these older adults were asked to list up to five of their closest confidants, describe in detail the nature of each relationship, and indicate how close they felt to each person. Excluding spouses³, the average number of close confidants named was 2.91, and most older adults perceived high levels of support from their social contacts. Additionally, most respondents were married, in good physical health, and reported not being very lonely.
在第一波中，这些老年人被要求列出最多五位最亲密的知己，详细描述每段关系的性质，并表明他们与每个人的亲密程度。不包括配偶，被点名的密友的平均人数为2.91人，大多数老年人认为他们的社会关系给予了高度支持。此外，大多数受访者已婚，身体健康，并表示并不十分孤独。

 

Iveniuk and co-author L. Philip Schumm, a senior biostatician at the University of Chicago, found that older adults who reported feeling "extremely close" on average to the non-spousal family members they listed as among their closest confidants had about a six percent risk of mortality within the next five years, compared to approximately a 14 percent risk of mortality among those who reported feeling "not very close" to the family members they listed.

 

Furthermore, the study found that respondents who listed more non-spousal family members in their network -- irrespective of closeness -- had lower odds⁴ of death compared to those who listed fewer family members. "Regardless of the emotional content of a connection, simply having a social relationship with another person may have benefits for longevity⁵," Iveniuk said.
此外，研究发现，与那些列出较少家庭成员的受访者相比，那些在网络中列出更多非配偶家庭成员（无论亲密程度如何）的受访者死亡几率更低。Iveniuk说：“无论关系的情感内容如何，与他人建立社交关系可能对长寿有益。”

 

Iveniuk said he was surprised that feeling closer to one's family members and having more relatives as confidants decreased the risk of death for older adults, but that the same was not true of relationships with friends.

 

"Because you can choose your friends, you might, therefore, expect that relationships with friends would be more important for mortality, since you might be better able to customize your friend network to meet your specific needs," Iveniuk said. "But that account isn't supported by the data -- it is the people who in some sense you cannot choose, and who also have little choice about choosing you, who seem to provide the greatest benefit to longevity."
Iveniuk说：“因为你可以选择你的朋友，所以你可能会认为与朋友的关系对死亡率的影响更重要，因为你可能能够更好地定制你的朋友圈来满足你的特定需求。”“但这一说法并没有得到数据的支持——在某种意义上，那些你无法选择的人，以及那些对选择你几乎没有选择权的人，似乎为长寿带来了最大的好处。”

 

Besides comparing friendships to relationships with family members, the study examined the characteristics of social networks in general and their association with mortality. The four factors most consistently associated with reduced mortality risk were being married, larger network size, greater participation⁶ in social organizations, and feeling closer to one's confidants, which all mattered to about the same degree. Factors found to be less important included time with confidants, access to social support, and feelings of loneliness.

 

"I expected the association between participation in social organizations and mortality to diminish in size considerably⁷ once we controlled for other aspects of peoples' social worlds, but that didn't happen," Iveniuk said.
Iveniuk说：“我预计，一旦我们控制了人们社会世界的其他方面，参与社会组织与死亡率之间的联系就会大大减少，但这并没有发生。”

 

Interestingly, marriage was found to have positive effects on longevity, regardless of marital⁸ quality. "We observed no association between measures of support from the spouse² and mortality, indicating that the presence of a marital bond may be more important for longevity than certain aspects of the bond itself," Iveniuk said.
有趣的是，研究发现，无论婚姻质量如何，婚姻都会对寿命产生积极影响。Iveniuk说：“我们没有观察到配偶的支持措施与死亡率之间的联系，这表明婚姻纽带的存在对寿命的影响可能比纽带本身的某些方面更重要。”

 

Generally, Iveniuk said his findings underscore the substantial importance of familial relationships for longevity. "Going back to the very first sociological theorists, many different thinkers have noted⁹ that there is some kind of special significance that people attribute to family ties, leading people to stay close to and support people who wouldn't necessarily be individuals that they would associate with if they had the choice," Iveniuk said.
Iveniuk说，总的来说，他的发现强调了家庭关系对长寿的重要性。Iveniuk说：“回到最早的社会学理论家，许多不同的思想家都注意到，人们将家庭关系归因于某种特殊意义，导致人们与那些如果有选择的话不一定会与之交往的人保持亲密关系并给予支持。”

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