Structure by Death: Social Network Replenishment in the Wake of Confidant Loss

Older adults are disproportionately likely to experience the death or other loss of a close network member. An important question is how their social networks are shaped by these experiences during a period that is already characterized by major life-course transitions. We study this question using longitudinal data on egocentric networks from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), which covers the period from 2005/6 to 2010/11. The data reveal that the vast majority of respondents added at least one confidant to their network rosters during the study period, and that this tendency did not differ between the youngest and oldest age groups. Across all age groups, the loss of a confidant due to any cause more than doubled the likelihood that one added a new confidant to one’s network. However, how the loss of a network member due to death, specifically, is associated with network recruitment depends on age. While the death of a confidant is not linked to network replenishment in the younger age groups, it is positively associated with network replenishment in the oldest age group. In this group, those who experienced the death of a confidant were 2.4 times as likely to add a new confidant as those who did not. We consider several potential explanations for this set of findings, including the possibility that the oldest adults are more adept at dealing with confidant mortality. We close by discussing some implications of these findings for theories of social-network-related behavior in later life.