20 Jan More Women Than Men Deemed Difficult or Demanding By Family and Coworkers

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Offer

Shira Offer PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Bar-Ilan University
https://biu.academia.edu/ShiraOffer 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: The major goal of the University of California Social Network Study (UCNets) is to promote our understanding of people’s social lives and their implications for health and well-being. The study collected information about whom individuals are connected to and the characteristics of those connected people. The participants in the study were asked to name the people with whom they usually get together and do social activities, whom they confide in about important things in life, and who give them practical help or assistance during emergencies. They were also asked to name the people whom they find “demanding or difficult.” This question allowed us to explore the negative aspect of personal relationships. Personal relationships are complicated but most research focuses on positive ties, or on the positive side of social ties. In this study we had the opportunity to also examine their negative aspect.

MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?

Response: Our results show that difficult relationships comprised about 15 percent of all the people participants named and that difficult people were likely to be found in contexts where people have less freedom to pick and choose their associates, such as close relatives and coworkers. Friends, by contrast, were substantially less likely to be considered difficult. We also found a disproportionate number of women on the “difficult” list. This is best understood as reflecting women’s more intensive role in the family, providing more fodder for tension and conflict.

Finally, we examined what kinds of interactions seemed to characterize a “difficult” relationship. Providing support to other people, but not receiving support from them—say, caring for a failing parent-was a major source of difficulty in these relationships.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: Very few social relationships (only about 5 percent of all relationships) were described as “only difficult,” meaning that nothing positive was mentioned about them. Most of those connections considered difficult were actually engaged in some positive way with the participant and provided her or him with important support.

This finding highlights the complex nature of personal ties and suggests that personal ties, especially with close relatives, are often ambivalent. I think that acknowledging this can help us better cope with the difficult aspects of the relationship.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: We are particularly interested in learning about the persistence of difficult relationships over time. A major advantage of UCNets is that it follows participants over a four-year period to learn about how people’s connections change as a result of life changes, such as marriage or divorce, moving, retiring, illness, and other events.  Because people’s personal networks shape physical and emotional well-being, understanding how and why networks change will have important health implications, especially as Americans encounter changing families, new lifestyles, and economic challenges. So far, only data from the first wave are available (the data on which this study is based), but soon data from subsequent waves will be released. We plan to use this new information to learn about what happens to difficult relationships over time. Which difficult ties will disappear? Which will persist? And what implications those persisting difficult ties have for individuals’ health and well-being?

MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.

Citation:

Difficult People: Who Is Perceived to Be Demanding in Personal Networks and Why Are They There?

Shira Offer, Claude S. Fischer
https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122417737951
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122417737951#articleCitationDownloadContainer
American Sociological Review
First Published October 31, 2017

Note: Content is Not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care provider regarding your specific medical condition and questions.

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Last Updated on January 20, 2018 by Marie Benz MD FAAD