ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the problematic nature of social relationships, including social support networks, that become important in old age. A wealth of studies have detailed the family’s continuing role in the provision of emotional, logistical, and caregiving support as an older adult’s abilities, needs, and personal resources change. Concerns over family burdens have prompted numerous attempts to objectively assess the degree and categories of strain caused by caregiving and to identify its antecedents and consequences. The chapter provides a model for more formally conceptualizing and measuring relational competence. An analysis in which the data from “young-old” and “old-old” individuals were analyzed separately suggests an important parameter on the role of relational competence and of satisfying personal relationships in psychological adjustment and well-being. Studies of older populations, to date, have focused on the relational competence variables in which researchers had greatest interest. Relational competence, however, would appear to embody a complex weave of personal qualities, dispositions, and skills.
