Stand by Me: Social Ties and Health in Real Time

Abstract

Sociological research has documented myriad associations between individuals’ overall social connectedness and health but rarely considers the shorter-term dynamics of social life that may underlie these associations. The authors examine how being with others (“social accompaniment”) is associated with momentary experiences of symptoms, drawing smartphone-based ecological momentary assessments (n = 12,760) collected from 342 older adults from the Chicago Health and Activity Space in Real-Time study. The authors find that patterns of social accompaniment are distinct from global measures of social integration such as network size. Older adults who are in the company of friends or neighbors are significantly less likely to experience momentary fatigue and stress, even after accounting for global measures of social integration. These results suggest that social accompaniment has unique implications for short-term health outcomes. New theoretical perspectives and empirical analyses are needed to better understand the dynamic nature of everyday social accompaniment and its longer-term implications for well-being.