IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vid/yearbk/v12y2014i1p23-52.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What can reverse causation tell us about demographic differences in the social network and social support determinants of self-rated health in later life?

Author

Listed:
  • Heather Booth
  • Pilar Rioseco
  • Heather Crawford

Abstract

Few studies of the association between social networks (SN), social support (SS), and self-rated health (SRH) address the role of demography in determining that association. Yet demography defines social-structural context, differentiates family from friend networks, and influences network structures. This study examines the SN-SRH association through cross-cutting analyses of four demographically defined groups (Males, Females, Partnered, Unpartnered) and three networks (Family, Friend, Group). By distinguishing between ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ samples, the underlying causal mechanisms are explored. The positive causal effect of SN on SRH is almost entirely confined to the healthy. In this sample, Friend SN is operational among Females and the Partnered, and Group SN is operational amongMales. In the unhealthy sample, reverse causation accounts for all but a weak positive effect of Group SN on the SRH of the Partnered, while worse SRH among Females has the causal effect of greater emotional SS through confiding in friends. Among the Unpartnered, only the effect of SRH on confiding in family members is significant. The findings call into question the validity of studies which assume only positive causation, and underline the importance of demographic differentiation of both population and networks for understanding the SN-SRH association.

Suggested Citation

  • Heather Booth & Pilar Rioseco & Heather Crawford, 2014. "What can reverse causation tell us about demographic differences in the social network and social support determinants of self-rated health in later life?," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 12(1), pages 23-52.
  • Handle: RePEc:vid:yearbk:v:12:y:2014:i:1:p:23-52
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://austriaca.at/0xc1aa5576_0x00329f7a.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benyamini, Yael & Leventhal, Elaine A. & Leventhal, Howard, 2003. "Elderly people's ratings of the importance of health-related factors to their self-assessments of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1661-1667, April.
    2. Grundy, Emily & Sloggett, Andy, 2003. "Health inequalities in the older population: the role of personal capital, social resources and socio-economic circumstances," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(5), pages 935-947, March.
    3. Berkman, Lisa F. & Glass, Thomas & Brissette, Ian & Seeman, Teresa E., 2000. "From social integration to health: Durkheim in the new millennium," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(6), pages 843-857, September.
    4. Shye, Diana & Mullooly, John P. & Freeborn, Donald K. & Pope, Clyde R., 1995. "Gender differences in the relationship between social network support and mortality: A longitudinal study of an elderly cohort," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 41(7), pages 935-947, October.
    5. Ferlander, Sara & Mäkinen, Ilkka Henrik, 2009. "Social capital, gender and self-rated health. Evidence from the Moscow Health Survey 2004," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1323-1332, November.
    6. Ulman Lindenberger & Tania Singer & Paul B. Baltes, 2002. "Longitudinal Selectivity in Aging Populations," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 57(6), pages 474-482.
    7. White, A.M. & Philogene, G.S. & Fine, L. & Sinha, S., 2009. "Social support and self-reported health status of older adults in the United States," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(10), pages 1872-1878.
    8. Seeman, Teresa E. & Berkman, Lisa F., 1988. "Structural characteristics of social networks and their relationship with social support in the elderly: Who provides support," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 26(7), pages 737-749, January.
    9. Melchior, Maria & Berkman, Lisa F. & Niedhammer, Isabelle & Chea, Maline & Goldberg, Marcel, 2003. "Social relations and self-reported health: a prospective analysis of the French Gazel cohort," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1817-1830, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shor, Eran & Roelfs, David J., 2015. "Social contact frequency and all-cause mortality: A meta-analysis and meta-regression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 76-86.
    2. Fiorillo, Damiano & Sabatini, Fabio, 2011. "Quality and quantity: The role of social interactions in self-reported individual health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(11), pages 1644-1652.
    3. Lakon, Cynthia M. & Ennett, Susan T. & Norton, Edward C., 2006. "Mechanisms through which drug, sex partner, and friendship network characteristics relate to risky needle use among high risk youth and young adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(9), pages 2489-2499, November.
    4. Xinguang Chen & Mengting Gao & Yayun Xu & Yan Wang & Shiyue Li, 2018. "Associations between personal social capital and depressive symptoms: Evidence from a probability sample of urban residents in China," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 64(7), pages 668-678, November.
    5. Lorenzo Rocco & Elena Fumagalli & Marc Suhrcke, 2014. "From Social Capital To Health – And Back," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(5), pages 586-605, May.
    6. Margie E Lachman & Stefan Agrigoroaei, 2010. "Promoting Functional Health in Midlife and Old Age: Long-Term Protective Effects of Control Beliefs, Social Support, and Physical Exercise," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(10), pages 1-9, October.
    7. Netta Achdut & Tehila Refaeli & Talia Meital Schwartz Tayri, 2021. "Subjective Poverty, Material Deprivation Indices and Psychological Distress Among Young Adults: The Mediating Role of Social Capital and Usage of Online Social Networks," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 863-887, December.
    8. Gale, Nicola K. & Kenyon, Sara & MacArthur, Christine & Jolly, Kate & Hope, Lucy, 2018. "Synthetic social support: Theorizing lay health worker interventions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 96-105.
    9. Fiorillo Damiano & Sabatini Fabio, 2011. "Quality and quantity: The role of social interactions in individual health," wp.comunite 0073, Department of Communication, University of Teramo.
    10. Ferlander, Sara & Mäkinen, Ilkka Henrik, 2009. "Social capital, gender and self-rated health. Evidence from the Moscow Health Survey 2004," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1323-1332, November.
    11. Kim, Harris Hyun-Soo, 2015. "School context, friendship ties and adolescent mental health: A multilevel analysis of the Korean Youth Panel Survey (KYPS)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 209-216.
    12. Khaksar, Seyed Mohammad Sadegh & Khosla, Rajiv & Chu, Mei Tai & Shahmehr, Fatemeh S., 2016. "Service Innovation Using Social Robot to Reduce Social Vulnerability among Older People in Residential Care Facilities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 113(PB), pages 438-453.
    13. Alison Dias & Nicholas Geard & Patricia Therese Campbell & Deborah Warr & Jodie McVernon, 2018. "Quantity or quality? Assessing relationships between perceived social connectedness and recorded encounters," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-11, November.
    14. Zhen Zhang & Jianxin Zhang, 2015. "Social Participation and Subjective Well-Being Among Retirees in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 143-160, August.
    15. Conklin, Annalijn I. & Forouhi, Nita G. & Surtees, Paul & Khaw, Kay-Tee & Wareham, Nicholas J. & Monsivais, Pablo, 2014. "Social relationships and healthful dietary behaviour: Evidence from over-50s in the EPIC cohort, UK," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 167-175.
    16. George Ploubidis & Emily Grundy, 2011. "Health Measurement in Population Surveys: Combining Information from Self-reported and Observer-Measured Health Indicators," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(2), pages 699-724, May.
    17. Moore, Spencer & Carpiano, Richard M., 2020. "Measures of personal social capital over time: A path analysis assessing longitudinal associations among cognitive, structural, and network elements of social capital in women and men separately," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    18. Terese Sara Høj Jørgensen & Rikke Lund & Volkert Dirk Siersma & Charlotte Juul Nilsson, 2018. "Interplay between financial assets and social relations on decline in physical function and mortality among older people," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 133-142, June.
    19. Angelique Chan & Prassanna Raman & Stefan Ma & Rahul Malhotra, 2015. "Loneliness and all-cause mortality in community-dwelling elderly Singaporeans," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(49), pages 1361-1382.
    20. Laure Sabatier & Spencer Moore, 2015. "Do Our Friends and Relatives Help Us Better Assess Our Health? Examining the Role of Social Networks in the Correspondence Between Self-Rated Health and Having Metabolic Syndrome," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(3), pages 21582440156, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vid:yearbk:v:12:y:2014:i:1:p:23-52. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bernhard Rengs (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/vid/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.