Social Isolation and Gender DEBRAVANDERVOORT Un~ers~ ~Hawa~atHi~
This study investigated the relationship between gender and social support. It was found that men were more isolated than women although there were no gender differences in perceived adequacy (i.e., satisfaction with one's social support network) or network size. Given that both the adequacy and network size variables were associated with socially desirable responding but the isolation variable was not, the results suggest that the behaviorally oriented indicator of isolation was a better measure of the degree of social isolation than traditional subjective scales currently used by many researchers. This suggests that traditional measures of social support that incorporate the dimensions of network size and perceived adequacy of one's social support system need to control for socially desirable responding and that measures can and need to be developed that are not significantly influenced by this response set bias. Hence, the assessment of social support may need to be more multifaceted than is currently undertaken in many studies. Our finding that men reported being more isolated than women may be a function, in part, of the fact that the majority of the sample (76.7%) was single/did not live with a partner. Previous research has found that men generally get their emotional needs met by their spouses/partners while women often get their emotional needs met by their female friends. Consistent with the literature, and given that most of our respondents were single, this study supports the contention that men are generally more socially isolated than women because they do not create adequate emotional intimacy when they are not in partnership with a significant other. Key words: gender, social support, social isolation
INTRODUCTION The social support literature has consistently shown that both singlehood and widowhood have differential consequences across gender lines. For men, singlehood and widowhood is associated with increased risk for mental and physical health problems, including mortality; whereas among women, lacking a female friend has been found to be a more important predictor of mental and physical health (Berkman, 1985; Berkman & Syme, 1979; Berkman et al., 1993; Helsing & Szklo, 1981; Wingard et al., 1983). Further, it has been found that single women tend to be happier, less lonely, and more psychologically balanced than single men (Glenn, 1975; Newman, 1986; Pearlin & Johnson, 1977; Somers, 1981). Although, as with many literature bases, the literature base on gender differences in social support is inadequate and plagued with some inconsistencies or notable exceptions, there are some general patterns emerging. Empirical evidence shows that gender differences do emerge when quality rather than quantity of relationships is measured. Studies show that women report higher quality relationships compared to their male counterparts (Belle, 1987; Shumaker & Hill, 1991; Stokes & Levin, 1986; Turner, 1994). This may, in part, be a function of Current Psychology: Developmental 9 Learning 9 Personality 9 Social Fall 2000, Vol. 19, No. 3,
229-236.
230
Current Psychology / Fall 2000
the fact that women generally appear to be better than men in providing and receiving emotional support (Flaherty & Richman, 1989; Richey & Richey, 1980; Shumaker & Hill, 1991; Vaux, 1985; 1988). Further, a review of the literature by Kessler, McLeod, and Wethington (1985) showed that studies consistently report that women are more likely to get involved in caregiving activities, are more responsive to the life events of others, and engage in more emotionally intimate, dyadic relationships; while men tend to be more oriented toward socializing or group oriented social activities compared to women. Throughout life, females are more likely to have confidants (i.e., emotionally intimate friendships) than are males (Flaherty & Richman, 1989; Lowenthal & Haven, 1968; Powers & Bultena, 1976). And, relative to women, men are much more likely than women to cite their spouses as their only confidant and to claim they have never had a confidant outside their immediate family (Powers & Bultena, 1976). Yet among women, studies regarding confidants have yielded inconclusive findings. Some studies find that they report spouses and friends as confidants with approximately equal frequency (Powers & Bultena, 1976), whereas other studies find that husbands are least often mentioned by wives as confidants (Lowenthal & Haven, 1968). In general then, men and women are more likely to rely on women as their primary sources of emotional support (Antonucci & Akiyama, 1987; Belle, 1987; Kessler et al., 1985). One of the reasons for these gender differences in the quality of relationships may be the way males and females cope with relationship issues. It has been found that females expect their female friends to use more problem solving and support oriented behaviors in response to relationship issues whereas they expect their male friends to use more dismissal and escapist responses to coping. Males also expect their male friends to use the latter type of responses in attempting to discuss relationship issues with their friends (Barbee et al., 1990). As one might expect, being married has been found to have the greatest influence on support satisfaction for men, while being in a reciprocally balanced provider-andrecipient relationship has the greatest influence on support satisfaction for women (Antonucci & Akiyama, 1987). Given that women have been found to be more nurturing of others (Anderson &Bem, 1981; Deaux, 1976; Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974) and responsive to others' needs, as noted earlier (Kessler et al., 1985), it follows that women are more likely to engage in these reciprocally balanced provider-and-recipient relationships vis-a-vis men. It has also been found that high numbers of social contacts do not ward off loneliness. It is only when these relationships involve emotional intimacy and disclosure that one is freed from loneliness (Wheeler et al., 1983). This finding is in accord with Freud's (1953) theory, and subsequent empirical evidence supporting his theory, that satisfactory mental health requires the processing, and not permanent repression of, significant emotional events in our lives. It is also reminiscent of Maslow's (1970) portrait of the self-actualized person who forms deep interpersonal relationships with a small but close circle of friends. And it is consistent with Roger's (1961; 1980) therapeutic stance that it is when we are deeply understood, accepted for where we are at any given point in our life course, and valued for who we are as a person, that we can move on to a better place or state of being. This finding also provides an explana-
VanderVoort
231
tion for the finding in many of the large epidemiological studies on social support and mortality that the risk ratio results assume a nonlinear or threshold form (Blazer, 1982; House et al., 1982; Orth-Gomer & Johnson, 1987; Schoenbach et al., 1986). That is, mortality was higher among the most socially isolated but declined only slightly, if at all, for those with moderate or high numbers of social ties. Although in its infancy, there is also a small literature base on gender differences in the perceptions of one's social network. For example, it has been found that women experience more adverse psychological consequences as a result of marital conflict than men (Turner, 1994) and generally experience more distress over stressful events in their interpersonal domain than do men (Solomon & Rothblum, 1986). Further, men tend to perceive cross-sex relationships as closer than do their female partners (Buhrke & Fuqua, 1987). In addition, Stokes & Levin (1986) found that high density of their social networks (i.e., interconnections between friends) is related to males perceiving themselves as less lonely, whereas density is unrelated to women's perceptions of loneliness for they focus more on the quality of intimate, dyadic relationships, suggesting that males and females use different standards in evaluating whether they are lonely. However, given that single men have a higher morbidity and all-cause mortality rate than married men or single women (Taylor, 1995), coupled with the findings, as we have seen, that: (a) men tend to rely on the female member(s) in their social network for emotional support, and (b) emotionally intimate relationships tend to be the ones to ward off loneliness, one might question the veracity of their subjective interpretation. Research on other gender differences in the social support realm suggests this may be a possibility. For example, Sarason et al., (1985) found that men rated themselves as more socially skilled and providing more support in a laboratory situation than women, but trained raters rated them lower than women in both of these areas based on both global and behavioral assessment criteria. Based on the present state of our knowledege of the role of social support, it was hypothesized that men would report more isolation than the women, especially given that the majority of the sample was single. Moreover, to control for response bias, we incorporated a measure that did not correlate highly with socially desirable responding for we believed this would better assess the relationship rather than a simple measure of network size. METHODOLOGY
Subjects Participants in the current study included 250 undergraduate students from San Francisco State University (N = 64) and the University of Hawaii at Hilo (N = 186) who completed a questionnaire packet including demographic information and measures of social support. The students were given extra credit for their participation and confidentiality was maintained via detachment of identifying information from the questionnaire packet.
232
Current Psychology / Fall 2000
TABLE 1 Descriptive Statistics Variable Age
.Mean/Percen tage 26.6
Standard Deviation 23.0 (median)
Race Caucasian Asian Multiracial Latino Afro-American
45.7 % 23.7% 23.7 % 5.3 % I. 6 %
Marital Status
76.7%
Single Married Divorced Separated Widowed
76.7% 13.1% 7.8 % 1.2 % 1.2 %
Childless
73.6%
Social Networks Social Support Satisfaction Social Network Size Isolation
6.8 6.3 2.6
2.8 3.2 1.1
Instruments
Social Support. To assess social support, a scale used by Leonard Syme and colleagues was employed to assess both quantity and quality of support, as well as isolation (see appendix A). Our measure of social isolation was a modification of Syme and colleagues' subjective measure of isolation. The questions address the degree of social isolation from a behavioral framework. Socially Desirable Responding. The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1964; hereafter referred to as the Marlowe-Crowne) was used to assess socially desirable responding. The scale is known to be highly reliable (i.e., internal consistency - Kuder-Richardson 20 at .88 and test-retest correlations averaging .88). The validity of the scale, according to Crowne and Marlowe (1964), has been confirmed in experimental settings.
233
VanderVoort
Isolation and Gender 3.5 Female
3.0
~Male .5 9
t~ O
,- , ~ ' ; , , . ~ ,
9 "," , " . "-" ." "/ .-," L" . c ,
c-
.o
-,,.,
.0 -
.-/ . -," L
5~
.5 "
1.0
0.5
0.0
Gender F=15.5, p<.0001
RESULTS The sample ranged in age from 18-54 (mean = 26.6, median = 23.0) with a greater percentage of females (73.7%) than males. The racial demographics were 45.7 percent Caucasian, 23.7 percent Asian, 5.3 percent Latino, 1.6 percent Black, and 23.7 percent of mixed ethnic backgrounds. The majority (76.7%) of the sample were single while 13.1 percent were married, 7.8 percent divorced, 1.2 percent separated, and 1.2 percent widowed. As one might expect, given the high percentage of single individuals, the majority (73.6%) had no children. The means X and standard deviations (SD) for the social support variables were as follows: Social Support Satisfaction (X = 6.8; SD=2.8); Network Size (X = 6.3; SD = 3.2); and Isolation (X = 2.6; SD = 1.1), as can be seen from Table 1.
Current Psychology / Fall 2000
234
Social Support and Gender Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results were not significant for gender and Social Support Satisfaction as well as gender and Network Size. However, ANOVA analyses revealed significant results for gender and Isolation (F = 15.5, p < .0001). Figure 1 illustrates these results. Interestingly enough, both the traditional scales (Social Support Satisfaction and Network Size) were significantly correlated with the MarloweCrowne (p < .01, two-tailed) but the Isolation scale was not. DISCUSSION The results suggest that men are more isolated than women. They also suggest that traditional measures of network size may provide an inaccurate assessment of isolation if they are highly correlated with a social desirability response set. Further, given that the isolation variable was a more objective, behaviorally oriented measure, and was not significantly correlated with socially desirable responding (unlike the traditional two social support measures), coupled with evidence from the social support literature base indicating that men's assessment of their provision of social support as well as their social skills is less accurate than women's perceptions (Sarason et al., 1985), coming up with measures that are not highly correlated with a social desirability response set is particularly important when investigating social network characteristics of men. The results of this study suggest that behaviorally oriented measures may be more likely to meet this criteria. One of the reasons that the men would be more isolated is that the majority of the sample was single. It may be that single men are much more likely than single women to remain emotionally isolated, given other research indicating that men are more likely than women to cite their spouses as their only confidant (Powers & Bultena, 1976), and men and women are more likely to rely on women as their primary source of emotional support (Antonucci & Akiyama, 1987; Belle, 1987; Kessler et al., 1985). This tendency to isolate may provide an explanation of why single and widowed men suffer higher rates of mental and physical illness and all-cause mortality than single and widowed women (Berkman, 1985; Berkman & Syme, 1979; Berkman et al., 1993; Glenn, 1975; Helsing & Szklo, 1981; Newman, 1986; Pearlin & Johnson, 1977; Somers, 1981; Wingard et al., 1983). Further research is needed to determine the replicability of these results, to determine whether the results found in this study hold for other dimensions of the social network (e.g., emotional intimacy of relationships, instrumental support, the costs of caring). Replication on other populations (e.g., other age groups, other cultural groups, community-residing individuals) is, of course, warranted as well. Greater understanding of gender differences in social support will enable us to better understand the impact gender has on the multifaceted relationship between social support and physical and mental health.
235
VanderVoort
NOTE Accepted for publication: 24 August 1999. Address correspondence to: Dr. Debra VanderVoort, University of Hawaii at Hilt, Social Sciences Division, Department of Psychology, 200 W. Kawili. Hilt, HI 96720.
REFERENCES Anderson, S. M. &Bem, S. L. (1981). Sex typing and androgyny in dyadic interaction: Individual differences in responsiveness to physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 74-86. Antonucci, T. C. & Akiyama, H. (1987). An examination of sex differences in social support in mid and late life. Sex Roles, 17, 737-749. Barbee, A. P., Gulley, M. R. & Cunningham, M. R. (1990). Support seeking in personal relationships. Special Issue: Predicting, activating and facilitating social support. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 7, 531-540. Belie, D. (1987). Gender differences in the social moderators of stress. In R. C. Barnett, L. Biener & G. K. Baruch (Eds.), Gender and stress (pp. 257-277). New York: Free Press. Berkman, L. F. (1985). The relationship of social networks and social support to morbidity and mortality. In S. Cohen & S. L. Syme (Eds.), Social support and health. New York: Academic Press. Berkman, L. F. & Syme, S. L. (1979). Social networks, host resistance, and mortality: A nine year followup study of the Alameda County residents. American Journal of Epidemiology, 115, 684-694. Berkman, L. F., Vaccarino, V. & Seeman, T. (1993). Gender differences in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality: The contributions of social networks and support. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 15, 112118. Blazer, D. (1982). Social support and mortality in an elderly community population. American Journal of Epidemiology, 115, 684-4594. Buhrke, R. A. & Fuqua, D. R. (1987). Sex differences in same- and cross-sex supportive relationships. Sex Roles, 17, 339-352. Crowne, D. P. & Marlowe, D. (1964). The approval motive: Studies in evaluative dependence. New York: Wiley. Deaux, K. (1976). The behavior of women and men. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole. Flaherty, J. & Richman, J. (1989). Gender differences in the perception and utilization of social support: Theoretical perspectives and an empirical test. Social Science and Medicine, 28, 1221-1228. Freud, S. (1964). An outline of psychoanalysis. In Standard edition (Vol. 23). London: Hogarth. (First German edition, 1940). Glenn, N. (1975). The contribution of marriage to the psychological well-being of males and females. Journal of Marriage and Family, 37, 594-601. Helsing, K. J. & Szldo, M. (1981). Mortality after bereavement. American Journal ofEpidemiology, 114, 41-52. House, J. S., Robbins, C. & Metzner, H. L. (1982). The association of social relationships and activities with mortality: Prospective evidence from the Tecumseh Community Health Study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 116, 123-140. Kessler, R. C., McLeod, J. D. & Wethington, E. (1985). The costs of caring: A perspective on the relationship between sex and psychological distress. In I. G. Sarason & B. R. Sarason (Eds.), Social support: Theory, research and applications (pp. 491-506). Boston: Martinus Nijhoff. Lowenthal, M. F. & Haven, C. (1968). Interaction and adaptation: Intimacy as a critical variable. American Sociological Review, 33, 20-30. Maccoby, E. E. & Jacklin, C. N. (1974). The psychology of sex differences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and personality (2nd Ed.). New York: Harper and Roe. Newman, J. P. (1986). Gender, life strain, and depression. Journal of Social Behavior, 27, 161-178. Orth-Gomer, K. & Johnson, J. V. (1987). Social network interaction and mortality: A six year followup study of a random sample of the Swedish population. Journal of Chronic Diseases, 40, 949-957. Pearlin, L. I. & Johnson, J. S. (1977). Marital status, life strains, and depression. American Sociological Review, 42,704-715. Powers, E. & Bultena, G. (1976). Sex differences in intimate friendships in old age. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 38, 739-747. Richey, M. H. & Richey, H. W. (1980). The significance of best-friend relationships in adolescence. Psychology in the Schools, 17, 536-540. Rogers, C. R. (1980). A way of being. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
236
Current Psychology / Fall 2000
Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Sarason, B. R., Sarason, I. G., Hacker, T. A. & Basham, R. B. (1985). Concomitants of social support: Social skills, physical attractiveness, and gender. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 469-480. Schoenbach, V., Kaplan, B.H., Fredman, L. & Kleinbaum, D. (1986). Social ties and mortality in Evans County, Georgia. American Journal of Epidemiology, 123, 577-591. Shumaker, S. A. & Hill, D. R. (1991). Gender differences in social support and physical health. Health Psychology, 10, 102-111. Solomon, L. J. & Rothblum, E. D. (1986). Stress, coping, and social support in women. Behavior Therapist, 9, 199-204. Somers, A. R. (1981). Marital status, health, and the use of health services: An old relationship revisited. In P. Stein (Ed.), Single life: Unmarried adults in social contexts. New York: St. Martin's Press. Stokes, J. & Levin, I. (1986). Gender differences in predicting loneliness from social network characteristics. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1069-1074. Taylor, S. E. (1995). Health psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill. Turner, H. A. (1994). Gender and social support: Taking the bad with the good? Sex Roles, 30, 521-541. Vaux, A. (1988). Social support: Theory, research, and intervention. New York: Praeger. Vaux, A. (1985). Variations in social support associated with gender, ethnicity, & age. Journal of Social Issues, 41, 89-110. Wheeler, L., Reis, H. & Nzlek, J. (1983). Loneliness, social interaction, and sex roles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 983. Wingard, D. L., Suarez, L. & Barrett-Conner, E. (1983). The sex differential in morality from all causes and ischemic heart disease. American Journal of Epidemiology , 117, 165-172.