The major constructs presented in Figure 1 appear to be the most relevant to explaining the link between social ties and health behavior, despite variation in the interrelations among mechanisms across social groups and stages of life. Extensive literatures on each construct cannot be reviewed in detail here, but we can define these mechanisms and, as depicted in Figure 1, elucidate how they fit into unfolding social tie/health behavior processes over the life course. Our aim is to think of these multiple mechanisms as part of a single, holistic phenomenon. Of course, many of these linkages are likely reciprocal (e.g., stressful relationships may lead to heavy drinking that, in turn, further stresses relationships), although reciprocal effects are not shown in the figure. Thus, we encourage future research that captures the full set of complex linkages among these constructs (House et al. 1994) and clarifies linkages as trajectories that unfold over time.
