Robert M. Milardo

Changes in Social Networks of Women and Men Following Divorce A Review

A theoretical critique and review is presented concerning the character and consequences of changes in the social networks of spouses following separation and divorce. For men, cultural traditions that prescribe the duties and obligations of husbands are thought to encourage the development of personal friendships while simultaneously encouraging independence, thus insulating men from the possible benefits of social support following divorce. For women, the duties and obligations of wives as they are traditionally defined encourage women to accept responsibility for “kinkeeping” during and after marriage while simultaneously discouraging bonds with friends. These circumstances are thought to isolate women from the unique benefits of personal friendship and ensure networks that are dominated by kin, which typically are high in exchanges of both social support and interference. Important distinctions are drawn between the character of relationships with kin and friends, as well as between the concepts of social support and social interference.

Comparative Methods for Delineating Social Networks

By centering on the assumption that clear conceptualization precedes appropriate measurement, four methods for defining and enumerating personal networks are detailed. Global networks are defined in terms of the domain from which all other personal networks are derived. The three additional types, including significant other, exchange and interactive networks, are conceptually unique and largely non-overlapping in their memberships. The network types reviewed here do not exhaust all of the methods available for sampling personal networks, but they do represent methods with favorable psychometric properties and, most importantly, clear conceptual foundations.

Network Interference in Pair Relationships: A Social Psychological Recasting of Slater's Theory of Social Regression.

Slaters (1963) functionalist theory of social anxiety is recast in terms of social psychological processes. As individuals become increasingly involved in an intimate relationship they withdraw from their respective social networks, producing reactions of social anxiety among network members and attempts to interfere with the relationship. Measures of network interference and relationship stage (casual dating to marriage) are derived from questionnaires administered to a random sample of university students (NI = 750). Findings indicate that, with reference to parents, siblings, other relatives, and friends, the proportion of network members perceived as interfering changes across stages in a curvilinear fashion. Other issues are discussed concerning the causal linkage of social withdrawal and interference, the conditions that influence the degree of interference, and the interrelations of perceptions of interference and actual attempts at interference.

The Social Context of Couple Conflict: Support and Criticism from Informal Third Parties

This study investigates how informal third parties, such as friends and family members, may play a role in couple conflict as perceived supporters or critics of partners conflicting positions. We examine who partners perceive to be supporters and critics and how beliefs about supporters and critics are related to partners views of the conflict. In a sample of 98 dating couples, parents and close friends were equally likely to be perceived as critics, but close friends were more likely than parents to be perceived as supporters. In general, partners saw their primary supporters among their same-sex friends in their own, rather than the couples joint, network. Thinking of ones own position as legitimate was correlated, for women, with the presence of supporters, and for men, with the absence of critics. Finally, the extent to which partners had separate, as opposed to joint, networks of significant others was systematically related to their preferred conflict management strategies.

Exploratory Study Marital Interdependence and Social Networks

In an exploratory study of 25 wives and their husbands we examine the associations of spouses with kin and friends as predictors of four marital qualities: love, maintenance, conflict and ambivalence. For husbands, contact with kin, and especially fathers, is tied to greater marital interdependence and lower conflict. For wives, contact with kin, and especially brothers-in-law, is consistently associated with greater marital distress in the form of lower love for her husband and reports of greater conflict and ambivalence on the part of both spouses. Husbands also report greater conflict and ambivalence when their wives interact frequently with friends. Overall, the findings suggest the effects of kin are heterogeneous, varying substantially by the type of role relation, and that the processes underlying relations with kin are distinctly different for wives and husbands.

Relational support from friends and wives' family relationships: The role of husbands' interference

Informed by Markss three corners model, this study explored the moderating role of husbands relational interference in the link between relational support from close friends and wives marital and family relationship quality. Using data from 52 wives rearing school-aged children, results from a hierarchical regression analysis suggested that husbands interference moderates the association between support from close friends and both wives marital satisfaction and mother—child relationship quality. At low levels of interference from husbands, support from close friends is positively associated with wives reports of marital satisfaction, and at high levels of spousal interference, support from close friends is positively associated with mother—child relationship quality. Theoretical implications for studying these processes as they co-occur across multiple close relationships are discussed.