Broken ties: reciprocity and other factors affecting the termination of older adults' relationships

Exchange theory assumes that people prefer balanced support exchanges in th eir relationships. If there is an imbalance and no expectation of change in the future, a relationship might be terminated. The question is: Which rel ationships are discontinued? The data are from a longitudinal study of 2057 older adults who identify 18,915 relationships at T-1. A relationship is r egarded as discontinued if it is not identified by the older adult at the s econd and third observations. Of the T-1 relationships, 4042 have since bee n discontinued. The results of a multilevel logistic regression analysis sh ow that the more intensive the support exchanges are at T-1, the more likel y it is for relationships to be continued. Relationships where older adults are overbenefited with instrumental support, i.e., receive more than they give, have a higher chance of being continued. However, if older adults are overbenefited with emotional support, this decreases the chance of the rel ationships continuing. The type of relationship has a significant effect on whether or not it is continued. Close kin relationships are most likely to be continued, and relationships with less close kin, friends, and neighbor s have a higher chance of being discontinued. The costs of the relationship are also decisive; the higher the contact frequency and the lower the trav eling time to the network member, the higher the chance of the relationship being continued. Furthermore, the larger the network of the older adult, t he more likely it is for an unbalanced relationship to be discontinued. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.