Close Social Networks Among Older Adults: The Online and Offline Perspectives

Sofia Gil-Clavel, Emilio Zagheni, Valeria Bordone

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Qualitative studies have found that the use of Information and Communication Technologies is related to an enhanced quality of life for older adults, as these technologies might act as a medium to access social capital regardless of geographical distance. In order to quantitatively study the association between older people’s characteristics and the likelihood of having a network of close friends offline and online, we use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and data from Facebook. Using a novel approach to analyze aggregated and anonymous Facebook data within a regression framework, we show that the associations between having close friends and age, sex, and being a parent are the same offline and online. Migrants who use internet are less likely to have close friends offline, but migrants who are Facebook users are more likely to have close friends online, suggesting that digital relationships may compensate for the potential lack of offline close friendships among older migrants.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1111-1135
JournalPopulation Research and Policy Review
Volume41
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2022
Externally publishedYes

Funding

We would like to thank the members of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research for all the comments and suggestions, in particular Maarten J. Bijlsma, Andres Castro, Daniela Negraia, Sophie Lohmann, and Diego Alburez, as well as, Clara H. Mulder (Univ. Groningen) and Denys Dukhovnov (UC Berkeley). This paper uses data from SHARE Waves 6 ( https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w6.700 ), see (Börsch-Supan et al. 2013) for methodological details. The SHARE data collection has been funded by the European Commission through FP5 (QLK6-CT-2001-00360), FP6 (SHARE-I3: RII-CT-2006-062193, COMPARE: CIT5-CT-2005-028857, SHARELIFE: CIT4-CT-2006-028812), FP7 (SHARE-PREP: GA N$$654221) and by DG Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion. Additional funding from the German Ministry of Education and Research, the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, the U.S. National Institute on Aging (U01_AG09740-13S2, P01_AG005842, P01_AG08291, P30_AG12815, R21_AG025169, Y1-AG-4553-01, IAG_BSR06-11, OGHA_04-064, HHSN271201300071C) and from various national funding sources is gratefully acknowledged (see www.share-project.org ).

FundersFunder number
National Institute on AgingP01_AG005842, Y1-AG-4553-01, OGHA_04-064, P30_AG12815, HHSN271201300071C, R21_AG025169, IAG_BSR06-11, U01_AG09740-13S2, P01_AG08291
Seventh Framework ProgrammeGA N$$654221
Sixth Framework ProgrammeCIT4-CT-2006-028812, RII-CT-2006-062193, CIT5-CT-2005-028857
Fifth Framework ProgrammeQLK6-CT-2001-00360
European Commission
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

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