Pilot Projects | Project Supplements

Principal Investigator: Claude Fischer

Given the acknowledged importance of personal social networks to the health of people generally, but to older people in particular, it is important to know how those networks change as people move into the older stages of life, including transiting to empty nest, retirement, and widowhood. Little seems to be securely understood now. This project will 1) review the literature; 2) analyze existing data-sets where they may be appropriate, and c) given what appear to be limitations in those data-sets, develop plans for an original longitudinal survey beginning roughly 2012.