Season's greetings: Adults' social contacts at the holiday season

Close friends and family play an important role in adults' lives, but littl e is known about the implications of infrequent or peripheral social lies t hat adults maintain. Eighty-seven adults, ranging in age from 24 to 87 year s (M = 51.25) provided information about their holiday card networks. Parti cipants completed surveys for up to 25 cards that they received during one holiday season (n = 1,405 surveys completed) and provided the holiday greet ings, as well, if they were willing (n = 1,152 cards). Over half of the car d!, participants received were from individuals whom participants did not c onsider to be close friends or family members and whom they had not seen in over a year. Adults of all ages described emotional reactions to approxima tely one third of the cards they received. Younger adults tended to view th eir holiday greetings as a means of maintaining or building new social ties , whereas older adults were more likely to view their holiday greetings as a link to their personal past. Receiving a greater number of holiday cards and receiving cards from close social contacts were associated with increas ed feelings of social embeddedness. Similarities and differences between pe ripheral ties and close social ties are considered.