Longitudinal analyses of the effects of age, marriage, and parenthood on social contacts and support

Social network dynamics in the course of family formation: Results from a mixed-methods longitudinal study

“…As the children the authors were following in a longterm panel study from childhood to adulthood moved into adolescence, their networks decreased in size and their network contacts become more selected; i.e., their contacts were adjusted to match their own life plans and stages in life. Kalmijn (2012), by contrast, stressed the importance of spatial proximity. Indeed, while parenthood negatively affects friendships and acquaintanceships, these losses are compensated for by the increasing importance of local relationships, such as neighbors.…”

Life course similarities on social networking sites

“…Several important studies have tracked the changes in social networks across the life course (e.g. Kalmijn, 2003;Kalmijn, 2012), and recent investigation using social network analysis has started to reveal how diverse the traits that spread amongst friendship groups can be in relation to health--related measures (Christakis and Fowler, 2007;Schafer, 2015) or marital behaviour (McDermott et al, 2013). We know of no previous large--scale study investigating how mating, union formation and having children relate to social network similarities.…”

“…Mating behaviour is less studied than parenting (but see: Christakis and Fowler, 2007;Kalmijn, 2012;McDermott et al, 2013;Munch--Rotolo, 2000) and previous studies tend to focus on the "contagiousness" of e.g. marrying or divorcing, rather than on the social network composition in relation to marital behaviour or childbearing.…”

Socio-economic inequalities in profiles of social integration across adulthood: evidence from a British birth cohort study

“…Studies suggest that social integration changes across the life course, with a small decrease in network size at older ages and an increasing emphasis on contact with family members as opposed to non-family members (Kalmijn, 2012). One explanation for this pattern of change is 'socioemotional selectivity theory' (Carstensen, Isacowitz, & Charles, 1999) whereby older individuals prioritise social relationships that provide immediate emotional payoff over those that confer future advantage.…”

“…Most longitudinal analyses are short, focus on later life (Cerhan & Wallace, 1997) and, where they explore change in social integration, focus on specific life events such as marriage, parenthood, divorce or widowhood (Kalmijn, 2012). An exception is the Americans' Changing Lives survey, that has been used to explore comprehensively assessed within-person longitudinal profiles of social integration in over 60 year olds across longer time periods.…”