Perspectives on Socioemotional Selectivity in Late Life: How Personality and Social Context Do (and Do Not) Make a Difference

This research extends earlier cross-sectional findings suggesting that although social network sizes were smaller in very old age as compared to old age, the number of emotionally close relationships in the network did not distinguish age groups. In a representative sample of community dwelling and institutionalized adults, aged 70 to 104 years, we explored whether such indication of socioemotional selectivity was related to personality characteristics and family status. Extraversion, Openness to Experience, and Neuroticism as assessed by the NEO-PI were related to overall network size but unrelated to the average emotional closeness of social partners in the network (i.e., our indicator of socioemotional selectivity). Family status, in contrast, was related to average emotional closeness to network members. Moreover, family status moderates the relationship between average emotional closeness to network members and feelings of social embeddedness. Findings suggest a stronger influence of contextual rather than personality factors on social functioning in late life.