The Independent and Interactive Effects of Family Network and Friend Network on Mental Distress in Older Korean Americans

Background: An accumulated body of evidence has showed that social network not only provides direct benefits to older individuals’ health and well-being but also buffers the negative consequences of late-life stresses such as health decline, caregiving, and bereavement. It is generally known that family network serves as a support bank from which older adults can draw help and assistance in times of need. As sources of social engagement, friend network is also known to offer specific benefits to mental health. However, the interactive roles of families and friends as social resources have rarely been studied. In this study, focusing on older Korean immigrants in the United States, we examined how family network and friend network is independently and interactively associated with mental distress.

Methods: Data were drawn from the Study of Older Korean Americans (SOKA), a multistate survey of Korean Americans aged 60 and older (n = 2,070). The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale 6 (K6) was used to assess participants’ level of mental distress. The family and friend network were measured with six items from the Lubben Social Network Scale (LSNS-6). Multivariate linear regression of mental distress was performed with a set of predictor variables: demographic variables, health variables, immigration-related variables, and family and friend network. Then, interactions between family and friend network were examined.

Results: All variables were correlated in the expected directions. Mental distress is significantly associated with low level of family (r= -.21, p < .001) and friend network (r= -.20, p < .001). The highest coefficient was observed between family and friend network (r= .57, p < .001). In the initial model of multivariate linear regression of mental health, where all demographic, health, immigration covariates were included, the significant independent variables were age, marital status, education, functional disability, and self-rated health. The model explained 10% of the total variance of mental distress. The direct effects of family (B = -.12, SE = 0.53, p <.001), and friend network (B = -.12, SE = 0.53, p <.001) were found to be significant in the subsequent model, which explained an additional 2% of the variance in mental distress. The impact of family network on mental distress was found to be moderated by friend network (B = .02, SE = 0.1, p <.01). A supplementary analysis confirmed that in the case of older Korean immigrants with low family network, the importance of friend network increases, while older Korean immigrants with high family network are less mentally distressed regardless of friend network.

Conclusions: Our findings contribute to the understanding of the direct mental health-promoting role of family and friend network as well as the nuanced role and function of social connectedness with family and friend in an understudied ethnic minority group. Findings called attention to contextually and culturally relevant strategies to identify individuals with strained family relationship and efficiently respond to their complex needs, building supportive friend networks.