Table 2.
Mean Proportion of Difficult Ties in the Network, by Cohort (Weighted)
| 21- to 30-Year-Olds (n = 480 respondents) |
50- to 70-Year-Olds (n = 666 respondents) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||
| Mean Proportion | % Reporting No Difficult Alters | Mean Proportion | % Reporting No Difficult Alters | |
|
|
||||
| Difficult Tiesa | .162 (.149) |
25.3 | .131*** (.129) |
33.0 |
| Difficult-only ties | .046 (.077) |
69.1 | .052 (.092) |
67.1 |
| Difficult engaged-in-exchange ties | .117 (.141) |
42.0 | .079*** (.112) |
54.3 |
| Difficult Ties by Role Relationshipb | % Difficult-Only | % Difficult Engaged-in-Exchange | % Difficult-Only | % Difficult Engaged-in-Exchange |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kin | ||||
| Wife | .0 | 27.0 | .0 | 13.0* |
| Husband | .0 | 20.0 | .0 | 15.0 |
| Female romantic partner | .0 | 14.0 | .0 | 28.0 |
| Male romantic partner | .0 | 19.0 | .0 | 14.0 |
| Mother | 4.5 | 24.0 | 12.7** | 29.0* |
| Father | 5.6 | 13.0 | 2.1 | 24.0 |
| Daughter | .0 | .0 | 6.0 | 16.0 |
| Son | .0 | .0 | 5.2 | 19.0 |
| Sister | 5.6 | 30.0 | 10.2* | 8.0*** |
| Brother | 13.1 | 13.0 | 5.7* | 5.0* |
| Other female relative | 11.0 | 6.0 | 6.5 | 8.0 |
| Other male relative | 5.1 | 7.0 | 5.8 | 5.0 |
| Non-kin | ||||
| Housemate | 3.3 | 18.0 | .7* | 24.0 |
| Neighbor | .7 | 5.0 | 2.7 | 3.0 |
| Workmate | 11.6 | 6.0 | 11.7 | 5.0 |
| Schoolmate | 2.5 | 9.0 | 3.6 | 4.0* |
| Churchmate | 3.5 | 5.0 | 2.9 | 5.0 |
| Friend | 2.3 | 7.0 | 1.9 | 6.0 |
| Acquaintance | 11.7 | 9.0 | 15.5 | 6.0 |
| Difficult Ties by Type of Exchangeb | ||||
| Socialize | 9.5 | 8.0** | ||
| Confide | 11.8 | 9.0** | ||
| Advice | 14.8 | 8.0*** | ||
| Practical help | 9.9 | 7.0* | ||
| Emergency help | 15.2 | 11.2*** | ||
| Provide support to alter | 17.1 | 14.9** |
a
Aggregated person-level measures.
b
Name-level measures.
*
p < .05;
**
p < .01;
***
p < .001 (two-tailed tests) for differences between cohorts.