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Friends are a vital source of social relations throughout the lifespan and across developmental stages. Our knowledge of how friendships develop over time, especially from childhood through adulthood, is limited. Furthermore, it is now recognized that this specific type of relationship influences health across the life course in unique ways. Using the Convoy Model of Social Relations as a guiding framework, this study charts the multiple and unique trajectories of friendship across adulthood and tests whether these trajectories influence health differentially by age. The sample for the study consisted of 553 adults from the longitudinal Social Relations Study. Respondents ranged in age from 13 to 77 at Wave 1 (1992), and included only those who reported a best friend in each wave, that is, Wave 2 (2005) and Wave 3 (2015). Approximately 65% of the respondents were women, and 24.5% were people of color. Latent growth curve analysis identified three trajectories of the presence of friends in one's network over time, two trajectories of positive friend quality, and three for negative quality. The most consistent findings are associated with positive friend relations over time. Gender was associated with friendship quality where women reported more positive friend relations over time, and increasing positive friend relations predicted better health 23 years later. These findings demonstrate that consistent and increasing positive friendships yield health benefits over time, whereas the presence of friends and negative quality does not have an effect. Overall, findings advance understanding of the long-term effects of social relations across the lifespan and life course. Public Significance Statement: This study suggests that there are distinct trajectories of friendship beginning in young and mid-adulthood indicated by proportion of friends in one's network and relationship quality. Identifying how personal and situational characteristics influence multiple dimensions of the friend relationship over time provides key information to guide social support-based interventions aimed at enriching developmental outcomes and maximizing well-being across the lifespan and life course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the complex role of family networks in shaping adult psychological well-being over time. We examine the unique and interactive longitudinal influences of family structure (i.e., composition and size) and negative family relationship quality on psychological well-being among young (ages 18-34), middle-aged (ages 35-49), and older adults (ages 50+). A sample of 881 adults (72% White; 26% Black) was drawn from the longitudinal Social Relations, Age, and Health Study. Structural equation modeling indicated that among young and middle-aged adults, increasing family negativity was associated with increases in depressive symptoms over time. In contrast, among older adults, lowered proportion of family in network and an increasing number of family members in the network (i.e., family size) were associated with decreases in depressive symptoms. These findings were moderated by family negativity. Among older adults with low family negativity, having a lower proportion of family and larger family size were associated with decreasing depressive symptoms, but there was no effect among those reporting high family negativity. Overall, these results contribute to an increased understanding of the complex, developmental nature of how family support influences well-being across the life span and highlights unique age differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Longer life expectancies and declining fertility rates suggest changes in connectedness among older adults. This study examines cohort patterns in the links between age and social relations by testing the Convoy Model of Social Relations among 2 adult cohorts in 1980 and 2005. We hypothesize that despite societal changes, connectedness remains fundamental in later life. The data are drawn from a regionally representative sample (N = 543) aged 50 to 100 collected in 2005 and a nationally representative sample (N = 718) aged 50 to 95 collected in 1980. We use multilevel-modeling to update the preliminary examination of how network characteristics vary by age and emotional closeness (Antonucci & Akiyama, 1987) with data collected 25 years later. Findings indicate that network size, gender composition, and years known were similar in both cohorts. Changes are also evident. In 2005, network members were older, had more frequent contact, and lived closer to their network members than in 1980. There was 1 cohort difference in network composition, the proportion of other family was smaller in 2005 compared with 1980. Finally, cohorts differed in the effects of age (e.g., on contact frequency), closeness (e.g., on network size), and Age × Closeness interactions (e.g., on sibling composition). In sum, overall patterns of network structure and composition are largely similar in the 2 cohorts. The effects of age and emotional closeness were largely consistent over 25 years. Although caution is warranted, these findings provide continued support for the importance of close relations in later life across historical periods. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]