This article addresses a debate about the relationship of singlehood and informal ties—singlehood as isolating versus integrative—and evaluates structural explanations for this relationship, focusing on life course characteristics and socioeconomic resources. Using the National Survey of Families and Households (1992–1994) and the General Social Survey (2000, 2004, 2006, 2012), we examine ties to relatives, neighbors, and friends among U.S. adults. We find that single individuals are more likely to frequently stay in touch with, provide help to, and receive help from parents, siblings, neighbors, and friends than the married. These differences between the single and the married are more prominent for the never married than for the previously married, suggesting that marriage extends its reach after it ends. Being single increases the social connections of both women and men. Overall, much of the positive relationship between singlehood and social ties remains even when we take into account structural explanations. We conclude that instead of promoting marriage, policy should acknowledge the social constraints associated with marriage and recognize that single individuals have greater involvement with the broader community.
AjrouchK. J.BlandonA. Y.AntonucciT. C. (2005). Social networks among men and women: The effects of age and socioeconomic status. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 60, S311–S317.
2.
AvishaiO.HeathM.RandlesJ. (2012). Marriage goes to school. Contexts, 11, 34–39.
3.
BellahR.MadsenR.SullivanW. M.SwidlerA.TiptonS. M. (1985). Habits of the heart: Individualism and commitment in American life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
4.
BarrettM.McIntoshM. (1982). The anti-social family. London, England: Verso Press.
5.
BengtsonV. (2001). Beyond the nuclear family: The increasing importance of multigenerational bonds. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63, 1–16.
6.
BurgessE. W.LockeH. J. (1945). The family: From institution to companionship. New York, NY: American Book Co.
7.
CampbellK.LeeB. A. (1992). Sources of personal neighbor networks: Social integration, need, or time?”Social Forces, 70, 1077–1100.
8.
CampbellL. D.ConnidisI. A.DaviesL. (1999). Sibling ties in later life: A social network analysis. Journal of Family Issues, 20, 114–148.
9.
CampbellL. D.Martin-MatthewsA. (2003). The gendered nature of men’s filial care. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58, S350–S358.
10.
CamposB.Rojas PerezO. F.GuardinoC. (2014). Familism: A cultural value with implications for romantic relationship quality in U.S. Latinos. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. doi: 10.1177/0265407514562564.
11.
CancianF.OlikerS. (2000). Caring and gender. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge.
12.
CherlinA. (2009). The marriage-go-round. New York, NY: Knopf.
13.
CooneyT.UhlenbergP. (1992). “Support from parents over the life course: The adult child’s perspective.” Social Forces, 71, 63–84.
14.
ConnellR. W. (1987). Gender and power. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
15.
ConnidisI.CampbellL. (2001). Closeness, confiding and contact among siblings in middle and late adulthood. In WalkerA.Manoogian-OdellM.McGrawL.WhiteD. (Eds.), Families in later life (pp. 149–155). New York, NY: Pine Forge Press.
16.
CornwellB.LaumannE. OSchummL. P. (2008). The social connectedness of older adults: A national profile. American Sociological Review, 73,185–203.
17.
CoserL. (1974). Greedy institutions: Patterns of undivided commitment. New York, NY: Free Press.
18.
DahlinE.KellyE.MoenP. (2008). Is work the new neighborhood? Social ties in the workplace, family, and neighborhood. Sociological Quarterly, 49, 719–736.
19.
DavisJ. A.SmithT. W.MarsdenP. V. (2009). General Social Surveys, 1972-2006 [computer file]. Storrs, CT: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut/Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributors].
20.
Di LeonardoM. (1987). The female world of cards and holidays: Women, families, and the work of kinship. Signs, 12, 440–453.
21.
DePauloB. (2006). Singled out: How singles are stereotyped, stigmatized, and ignored, and still live happily ever after. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
22.
DurkheimE. (1966). Suicide: A study in sociology (SpauldingJ. A.SimpsonG., Trans.). New York, NY: Free Press (original work published 1897).
23.
EggebeenD. (2005). Cohabitation and exchanges of support. Social Forces, 83, 1097–1110.
24.
ElderG. H.Jr.JohnsonM. K.CrosnoeR. (2003). The emergence and development of life course theory. In MortimerJ.ShanahanM. (Eds.), Handbook of the life course (pp. 3–22). New York, NY: Plenum.
25.
EttnerS. (1996). The opportunity costs of elder care. Journal of Human Resources, 31, 189–205.
26.
FischerC. S. (1982). To dwell among friends: Personal networks in town and city. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
27.
FischerJ.SollieD.SorellG.GreenS. (1989). Marital status and career stage influences on social networks of young adults. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 51, 521–534.
28.
GerstelN.ClawsonD. (2014). Class advantage and the gender divide: Flexibility on the job and at home. American Journal of Sociology, 120, 395–431.
29.
GerstelN.GallagherS. (2001). Men’s caregiving: Gender and the contingent character of care. Gender & Society, 15, 197–217.
30.
GillespieB. J.LeverJ.FrederickD.RoyceT. (2014). Close adult friendships, gender, and the life cycle. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. doi: 10.1177/0265407514546977.
31.
GoodeW. J. (1959). The theoretical importance of love. American Sociological Review, 24, 38–47.
32.
HaJ. (2008). Changes in support from confidants, children, and friends following widowhood. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70, 302–318.
33.
JohnsonM.LeslieL. (1982). Couple involvement and network structure: A test of the dyadic withdrawal hypothesis. Social Psychology Quarterly, 45, 34–43.
34.
JohnsonR. W.Lo SassoA. T. (2000). The trade-off between hours of paid employment and time assistance to elderly parents at midlife(Working paper). Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.
35.
KalmijnM. (2003). Friendship networks over the life course: A test of the dyadic withdrawal hypothesis using survey data on married and cohabiting couples. Social Networks, 25, 231–249.
36.
LaditkaJ. N.LaditkaS. (2001). Adult children helping older parents: Variations in likelihood and hours by gender, race, and family role. Research on Aging, 23, 429–456.
37.
LeiblerC.SandefurG. (2002). Gender differences in the exchange of social support with friends, neighbors, and co-workers at midlife. Social Science Research, 31, 364–391.
Levi-StraussC. (1969). The elementary structures of kinship. London, England: Eyre and Spottiswoode.
40.
McPhersonJ. M.Smith-LovinL.BrashearsM. (2006). Social isolation in America: Changes in core discussion networks over two decades. American Sociological Review, 71, 353–375.
41.
MillerA.NakamuraT. (1996). On the stability of church attendance patterns during a time of demographic change: 1965-1988. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 35, 275–284.
42.
MoenP.SweetS. (2006). Advancing a career focus on work and the family: Insights from the life course perspective. In Pitt-CatsouphesM.KossekE. E.SweetS. (Eds.), The work and family handbook: Multi-disciplinary perspectives and approaches (pp. 189–208). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
43.
MooreG. (1990). Structural determinants of men’s and women’s personal networks. American Sociological Review, 55, 726–735.
44.
MunchA.McPhersonJ. M.Smith-LovinL. (1997). Gender, children, and social contact: The effects of childrearing for men and women. American Sociological Review, 62, 509–520.
45.
NockS. L. (1995). A comparison of marriages and cohabiting relationships. Journal of Family Issues, 16, 53–76.
46.
NockS. L. (1998). Marriage in men’s lives. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
47.
NockS. L. (2005). Marriage as a public issue. The Future of Children, 15, 13–32.
48.
ParsonsT.BalesR. (1960). Family, socialization and interaction process. New York, NY: Free Press.
PezzinL.SchoneB. (1999). Parental marital disruption and intergenerational transfers: An analysis of lone elderly parents and their children. Demography, 36, 287–297.
51.
PopenoeD. (1996). Life without father. New York, NY: Free Press.
52.
PutnamR. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
53.
PykeK. (1996). Class-based masculinities: The interdependence of gender, class, and interpersonal power. Gender and Society, 10, 527–549.
54.
RoschelleA. (1997). No more kin: Exploring race, class, and gender in family networks. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
55.
RossiA. S. (2001). Developmental roots of adult social responsibility. In RossiA. S. (Ed), Caring and doing for others: Social responsibility in the domains of family, work, and community (pp. 227–321). Chicago, IL: University Of Chicago Press.
56.
RossiA. S.RossiP. (1990). Of human bonding: Parent-child relations across the life course. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
57.
RotoloT. (2000). A time to join, a time to quit: The influence of life cycle transitions on voluntary association membership. Social Forces, 78, 1133–1161.
58.
RoystonP.WhiteI. R. (2011). Multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE): Implementation in Stata. Journal of Statistical Software, 45, 1–20.
59.
SampsonR. J.LaubJ.WimerC. (2006). Does marriage reduce crime? A counterfactual approach to within individual causal effects?Criminology, 44, 465–508.
60.
SarkisianN.GerstelN. (2004). Explaining the gender gap in help to parents: The importance of employment. Journal of Marriage and Family, 66, 431–451.
61.
SarkisianN.GerstelN. (2008). Till marriage do us part: Adult children’s relationships with parents. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70, 360–376.
62.
SarkisianN.GerstelN. (2012). Nuclear family values, extended family lives: The power of race, class, and gender. New York, NY: Routledge.
63.
SechristJ.SuitorJ. J.HendersonA. C.ClineK. M. C.SteinhourM. (2007). Regional differences in mother-adult-child relations: A brief report. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 62, S388–S391.
64.
ShanahanM. J. (2000). Pathways to adulthood in changing societies: Variability and mechanisms in life course perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 667–692.
65.
SilversteinM.ParrottT. M.BengtsonV. (1995). Factors that predispose middle-aged sons and daughters to provide social support to older parents. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 465–476.
66.
SilversteinM.WaiteL. (1993). Are Blacks more likely than Whites to receive and provide social support in middle and old age? Yes, no, and maybe so. Journal of Gerontology, 48, 212–222.
67.
SlaterP. (1963). On social regression. American Sociological Review, 28, 339–364.
68.
SmockP.ManningW.PorterM. (2005). “Everything’s there except money”: How money shapes decisions to marry among cohabiters. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 680–696.
SweetJ.BumpassL. (1996). The National Survey of Families and Households -- waves 1 and 2: Data description and documentation. Retrieved July 12, 2003, fromhttp://www.ssc.wisc.edu/nsfh/home.htm
71.
TownsendN. (2002). The package deal: Marriage, work, and fatherhood in men’s lives. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
72.
TrimbergerE. K. (2006). The new single woman. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
73.
UtzR. L.CarrD.NesseR.WortmanC. B. (2002). The effect of widowhood on older adults’ social participation: An evaluation of activity, disengagement, and continuity theories. The Gerontologist, 42, 522–533.
74.
von HippelP. T. (2007). Regression with missing Ys: An improved strategy for analyzing multiply imputed data. Sociological Methodology, 37, 83–117.
75.
WaiteL.GallagherM. (2000). The case for marriage: Why married people are happier, healthier, and better off financially. New York, NY: Doubleday.
76.
WaiteL.GallagherM. (2001). The case for marriage: Why married people are happier, healthier and better off financially. New York: Random House.
77.
WhiteL. K. (2001). Sibling relationships over the life course: A panel analysis. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 63, 555–568.
78.
WhiteL. K.PetersonD. (1995). The retreat from marriage: Its effect on unmarried children’s exchange with parents. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 428–434.
79.
WhiteL. K.RiedmannA. (1992). Ties among adult siblings. Social Forces, 71, 85–102.
80.
WilcoxW. B. (2005). Why marriage matters: Twenty-six conclusions from the social sciences. New York, NY: Institute for American Values.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
