SOCIAL BONDING AND LONELINESS AFTER NETWORK DISRUPTION - A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF EAST-GERMAN REFUGEES

After the 1989 breakdown of the communist system, 235 East Germans wer e interviewed three times during the two years following their transit ion to West Berlin. In moving to the west, the migrants had to deal wi th various stressors, among them the lack of social ties in their new environment. Fortunately, the number of their new friends increased st eadily, and loneliness declined. These changes, however, differed betw een sexes and age groups. Men made more friends than women, in particu lar same-sex friends, whereas women knitted ties with both sexes. The young built larger networks than the intermediate age group. Lonelines s emerged as an inhibiting factor in the bonding process. The study de monstrates how well these refugees coped with a social crisis. It also examines the roles that loneliness and social bonding played in the r eadjustment process.