Health and well-being are typically analyzed as individual outcomes, yet a focus on individual-level influences and interventions may overlook the important roles that one’s social environment and set of social relationships can play in life course trajectories of health and well-being. I will discuss ways in which relationships – ranging from intimate ties such as marriage to weak, even unchosen ties with neighbors and community members – may influence psychological, emotional, and physical health in mid- and later life. I will focus in particular on issues such as marital quality and emotional contagion among older spouses; the heightened influence of social connectedness in later life; the impacts of neighborhood age demographics on perceived discrimination, social cohesion, and well-being; and the role of psychological and emotional well-being as mechanisms linking social ties with physical health.
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