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Neighbouring networks and environmental dependency. Differential effects of neighbourhood characteristics on the relative size and composition of neighbouring networks of older adults in The Netherlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2000

FLEUR THOMÉSE
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
THEO VAN TILBURG
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

Abstract

The effects of four social-structural neighbourhood characteristics on the relative size and the composition of neighbouring networks are tested in a sample of 3,504 older adults born between 1908 and 1937 and living in three different regions in the Netherlands. Interactions with individual income and ADL capacity are included in multilevel regression analyses, to test effects of older adults' environmental dependency. Population density and residential mobility both have a negative effect on the relative size of the neighbouring network, and the effect of urbanisation is strongest among poorer respondents. These findings suggest first that the structural effects of urbanisation work at the level of concentration vs. dispersion of personal networks, and second that there is no general mechanism of environmental dependency.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2000 Cambridge University Press

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