Objectives Adults in mid to later life experience shrinking social networks, which may hinder well-being. Siblings may be important sources of social contact. Yet, little is known about adults’ patterns of contact with siblings and how contact is linked to well-being. Method Participants included 491 adults from across the United States (M age = 58.96, SD = 6.25; 68% female) recruited online via Amazon Mechanical Turk; they reported on their contact with their sibling in person, over the phone, via email, texting, and social media. Results Latent class analysis found evidence for four patterns of contact (classes) among siblings: low, medium, high, and traditional. Those with high contact reported greater life satisfaction than those in the other groups. Those in the high group reported lower self-rated health when they recalled being treated less favorably, relative to their sibling, by their mother as children. Discussion These findings suggest that differing patterns of sibling contact exist among older adults. In some cases, contact may promote well-being. In other cases, more contact may serve as a reminder of hurtful or painful past family experiences related to mothers’ differential treatment, in which case more contact may be linked to poorer health.

Studies of longevity among centenarians examine biological, psychological, and social factors, yet few consider these components concurrently. This study explores such factors individually and collectively, as they are related to days lived past the age of 100 years. Data from 268 family members of centenarians identified in the State of Utah between 2008 and 2015 were used in negative binomial models predicting number of days lived among the centenarians. Findings suggested that sleep latency (biological), life satisfaction (psychological), and attachment closeness (social) were predictive factors of more days lived within individual models. When considered together, sleep latency and life satisfaction remained significant predictors of days lived. Although biological factors are commonly considered in relation to longevity, this study further indicates that psychological and social factors may play important roles in life expectancy. Further examination is needed to explore how these factors link additionally to active life expectancy.