Satisfaction with Retirement: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis with Social Network Analysis

When compared to other OECD countries, a club of mostly rich countries, Chile appears to be a particularly unequal country. However, it would be convenient to place it in the broader Latin-American and international context. According to a World Bank report in 2016, Chile ranks 14th when the Gini coefficient is used to measure inequality. In addition, Chile is among the upper-middle or high-income countries in the region, while other highly unequal countries such as Honduras or Guatemala are also income-poor. It is also the economy that has grown the most in the region since the 1980s and some reforms such as “solidarity retirement” and educational reforms could have an impact on this situation. In this context, I studied a group of 30 older people living in Santiago, Chile. They were contacted between October 2019 and January 2020. Of this group, 10 lived in a higher-class district, 10 in a middle-class district, and 10 in a lower-class district. Furthermore, 15 were women, and 15 were men. Each interview applied was composed of three stages: First, the life history of the participant was enquired into, which sometimes involved more than one interview. Second, the participant was asked to identify the most important events of their life. These events numbered mostly in the range of three to eight, depending on the sharpness of recall of the individual interviewed. Third, for each of those events, the question was asked concerning the SSN questionaries. Finally, questions were asked concerning the SSN at the moment of the interview.

They were asked for their life histories and details of their SSNs over time. Accordingly, they identified the most important events of their lives, and I asked for information on their SSNs during each of these. In general, older people identified between three and eight events, plus their current networks. Their SSN was retrospective, and it considered material aid, intimate support, advice, physical assistance, feedback, positive interactions (Barrera, 1980), and negative interactions (Leffler et al., 1986; Offer & Fischer, 2018). This means that a survey was applied (following Barrera, 1980) with questions semi-standardized about each of these dimensions. These questions were asked twice, but in different dimensions: first, those dimensions of support that the ego received, and second, those that one's ego gave to others. Then, each dimension was collected in both directions. Studying older people to approach SSN gives us a deep understanding of them from a longitudinal perspective. Specifically, these actors allow us to gain information from many years of a person's life. These 30 cases constituted the primary sources of information for this article.

As mentioned, this article looks at those necessary and sufficient conditions that ensure an older person is satisfied with the money they receive during retirement, specifically in the Chilean context. Therefore, the question is, how relevant are relational conditions to satisfaction with retirement? How appropriate is each dimension of social support? Is it essential also to consider the reciprocity of these ties? Again, the QCA applied is presented here (Olsen, 2012; Ragin, 2014[1987]; Schneider & Wagemann, 2012) to verify each condition's relevance to the outcome. This methodology used Boolean algebra to identify which variable could be considered a dependent variable's necessity and sufficiency.

QCA is a methodological strategy for analysis that compares cases from qualitative data. It was created by Ragin (2014 [1987]), who introduced it as a strategic approach beyond the binary distinction between quantitative and qualitative data. It aims to make a parallel comparison of cases with comparable elements, even if some characteristics are missing. He aimed to identify a tool that allowed researchers to systematically integrate in-case and cross-case analyses. This uses a Boolean approach, a subset of the general algebra of sets and logic. Furthermore, QCA combines a range of tools, as “it examines cases; it uses categorical variables; it looks at different combinations of conditions (that is, cells of a multivariate cross-tabulation); it can be applied to categorical dependent variables; and it involves data reduction” (Ragin, 2014[1987], p. xi). It is an approach constructed from set theory, which uses a set instead of variables, as “Variables sort, rank, or array cases relative to one another, often based on the arithmetic mean. (...) A set, by contrast, is a grouping and is more case-oriented than a variable because sets entail membership criteria and have classificatory consequences.” (Ragin, 2014[1987], p. xxiv). Therefore, it is ideal for examining explicit connections between conditions and particular outcomes (Ragin, 2008).

Among social science research methods, QCA combines inductive and deductive processes in the same research (Bazeley, 2018). It does not use probability at all; instead, it uses data to measure the degree of membership or non-membership in the case of groupings in a set. In other words, this method is “used to examine patterns of joint membership in the vector space of all the conditions that define configurations in the qualitative data” (Olsen, 2012, p. 184). Here, a vector space is a multidimensional space with fuzzy set measures in every “corner,” and we can depict the data in a plane for two-dimensional space, a cube for three-dimensional space, and so on. The causal analysis integrates multiple causes and can consider eight, 10, or more dimensions. Another benefit of this strategy is that we can use many different types of variables, such as crisp sets, multi-values, and fuzzy sets. For this research, I used crisp and fuzzy sets. QCA is simultaneously a technique and a research approach and fits perfectly with studies involving 10–50 cases (Medina et al., 2017; Schneider & Wageman, 2012). Recent improvements in software allow thousands of cases to be used in QCA (Longest & Vaisey, 2008).

There were 42 conditions added into the model. This number of conditions was justified, first, with the theoretical framework, as there was found evidence of each one in relation with the outcome. Second, all the interviews were processed for other analyses (for the most part those involving a narrative element) employed in this research, thus enabling the formation of those categories whose incorporation into the QCA model would be crucial. As has been mentioned, QCA performs well with studies of 10–50 cases, and does not use a statistical approach. Therefore, the fact that the conditions were so many is related with a theoretical and qualitative decision, which does not influence the performance of its results.

Different conditions were tested for each variable (see Appendixes 1 and 2); in the first model, nine main conditions were tested in terms of the current situation of each person interviewed. The second was about testing the five temporal variables (explained later). Later, in the third model, variables of the SSN (in both directions) were introduced by type of support. In addition, the model was created using measurements from the SNA applied to each case. Finally, the QCA model's analysis was conducted using the FsQCA and RStudio programs (Dusa, 2019).

Concerning the current situation of older people, some conditions were added. Among these conditions, one was to assess whether the individual concerned did or did not have a chronical disease. For coding this variable, the following protocol was followed: If the participant talked about their problems and worries concerning their health at the present, this was taken as a sign that they had a chronical disease, and accordingly, the participant was categorized as 1 (presence of a chronical disease). On the other hand, if this did not happen, the coding was done as 0, indicating absence. In other words, the subjective approach to each participant's health status was measured. It is recognized that a further operationalization of this condition in particular would be needed for future research.

In this article, five temporal variables are used: whether or not the person was born in the capital, whether or not they completed school, whether or not they started working before turning 18 years of age, whether or not they had children before turning 18 years of age, and whether or not they had one or both parents alive and in contact with them during childhood. Therefore, all of these variables are related to the interviewee's childhood.

Following this research's mixed methods approach, some conditions from SNA were incorporated. The person interviewed is the EGO; the people they mention are their ALTERS. The incorporation of social network measures as conditions of QCA is not new. It has been demonstrated as being useful for a better understanding of the influence of relationships in people's lives (Hollstein & Wagemann, 2014). These conditions obtained from the SNA are: size, density, index of qualitative variation (IQV), efficiency, constrain, and reciprocity; as described below. More information concerning each of these is available in Appendix 2, in which the theoretical argument of each one, too, can be found.

This concept refers to the number of alters in the ego's network. This study uses the size of the complete network (without the ego) by each type of support. This measure allows for a better understanding of the number of influential people who are active resources of possible help from the ego's perspective. The calculation of this measurement comprised the total number of alters that give or receive at least one support from the alters nominated.

This measure refers to the density of a network without the ego. It is calculated by “the number of ties between alter divided by the number of possible ties” (Crossley et al., 2015, p. 82). It was calculated for the complete network and then again without including kin. Previous studies have shown that older people tend to have dense networks, a product of the time passed, making those relationships close. However, there is currently no consensus on this. The calculation to obtain the density involved using the undirected network. It multiples the size (n) with the size minus 1 (n-1); afterward, the obtained result is divided by 2.

The IQV establishes the level of dispersion in an ego's network (Crossley et al., 2015). This research was constructed to measure the diversity of the dimensions of support received by the ego. In addition, it is a normalization of Blau's index, which is a valuable measure that enables comparison (Borgatti et al., 2013). In this study, the IQV was calculated by how many alters had characteristics specific to a particular group. In this case, there were six groups (one per dimension of support), and each group was formed of the people who gave the ego that dimension of support. Therefore, IQV shows how diverse the dimensions of support were that the ego received at the time of the interview.

This measure was proposed by Burt (1995) and is obtained using the size and average centrality of a network. Compared to the size, the network's efficiency gives us information about non-redundant contacts in a network; in other words, the efficiency level is measured by how many non-redundant contacts an ego has. In general, and from previous studies of older people, no efficiency results were found. However, this measurement helps to establish more information about the structure of older people's networks, in this case. To calculate them, it is considered that in the effective size, ego is excluded from the measurements, and n is the total size of the network.

According to Burt (2000), a constraint is about gaining a sense of the network's redundancy. In other words, it is the concentration of the ego's time in one connected network, considering the amount of time they invest in their alters and the amount of time their alters invest in one another. Everett and Borgatti's (2020) proposed calculation method was considered here. Therefore, high levels of constraint are expected to be found in lower-class districts compared to higher-class districts. His calculation is the summarization of how much constraint each alter delivers to ego.

This measure establishes how many relationships in an ego's network are mutual. For this calculation, the total number of reciprocated ties was divided by the total number of ties (Borgatti et al., 2013). This was calculated for each supported network and normalized proportionally to the number of mutual ties in each specific network. The bigger number obtained as a result indicates that the networks are composed of a heightened number of reciprocated links. Reciprocity is measured with a division between the total number of mutual links in the network, and the total number of links.

Concerning the calibration of fuzzy sets' values, there were some methodological decisions taken that would be helpful to state here. First, the outcome was a fuzzy set constructed from the experience of each participant, for which the coding in detail is explained in the forthcoming subsection. This condition had a more qualitative approach for coding. Second, the majority of the measures used from the social networks approach were “naturally” coded as fuzzy. For example, the density has resulted in values between 0 and 1, and so it matches perfectly with the fuzzy frame. Third, just a couple of the conditions needs some transformation to have values among 0 and 1. Finally, there was taken into account a calibration process of these variables from a qualitative approach. It was applied with each condition, checking on the life histories of each participant to make sense of the results, and to calibrate them.

As has been said, the sample used was composed of 30 older people interviewed. During the interview, I asked all those forming part of the sample an approximation of the amount of money received by them each month, considering what they received from the state, the system of pensions, their relatives, a second house, and other options for periodical income generation. The amount of money was the summarization of what they used to receive each month, without caring about its origin. In general, their pension amount was diverse, from $100,000 (£95 approximately) until >$900,000 (£860 approximately). In Chile, the minimum wage was $330,000 (£315 approximately with taxes previously reduced) at the moment of fieldwork.

After these questions, I asked about their satisfaction with their financial situation during retirement. In this way, I was not only asking for the amount of money received each month, but also about their opinion, feelings, and experiences about it. Sometimes older people mentioned about how they do not have enough money to afford buying new clothes or even food; while others related that they had the opportunity to travel. I took those answers and categorized them accordingly from “Not satisfied with their retirement at all,” until “Very satisfied with their retirement.” In the end, I have the outcome used in QCA varied from 0 until 1. This way of measuring the outcome allows including their opinion about the amount of money received by them, their emotions, and expectations.

The outcome was how satisfied the person interviewed (the ego) was with their retirement. The outcome is categorized in Table 1.

The distribution of the answer about satisfaction with retirement among the people interviewed can be seen in Figure 1. Those living in a high-class district correspond to the cases from 1 to 10, in a middle-class district are from 11 to 20, and in a low-class district are from 21 to 30. This graph makes visible a difference in socioeconomic status among these participants: the first 10 cases are more satisfied than the last 10.

Figure 1

In the following paragraphs, I will give examples of how people reacted to questions concerning retirement satisfaction. Their situations were unique and diverse. They all had different lives and, therefore, different expectations. First, it is the case of Nicolás, an older man living in a low-class district. He was classified as a 0.1 on the scale of satisfaction with retirement. When I asked him about his retirement satisfaction, he told me how unfair his pension was. He does not have the opportunity to work anymore since the preceding year because of chronic disease, making him feel disappointed as he could not help more with money to his family. He was very critical about the current pensions system, saying that he is alive only because his grandchildren help him. Besides, he did not express any hope for some changes in the future. In a different part of the interview, he mentioned these things to describe his current situation, which he defines as “misery.” In his words:

“when I get retired, I was not happy with it at all, so I had to start working... it was a misery... my granddaughter and grandson pay a lot of my stuff, they are both working so they both pay for the food and the house ... I pay the water bill and the energy bill ... I pay like $100.000 [as £95] ... and when I have something left, I cooperate paying for a bread for dinner or breakfast ...”

Another similar case is Patricio, who got a 0.1 in satisfaction with retirement. He lived in La Reina and was very critical and hopeless about any improvements in his future. He uses the same word to describe the pension he received, a “misery.” He said that his retirement had restricted his daily life because of his low pension. He described it as:

“a nonsense... and I received a misery, so... I received like $150.000 [as £148 per mouth]... this is an abuse... and it is that all these revolts are also for all these things, like how they [the government] leave the old people retiring with the minimum... even though that I worked a lot when I was young”

The situation was a little different with Patricia, who was categorized as a 0.4 on the outcome's scale. She has lived in Quinta Normal almost her entire life and has worked since an early age. When I asked about her retirement, she answered indifferently to the topic. Patricia mentions that she has a “little amount of money” but is not dissatisfied. She said, “I was worried that my son has everything. Also, I never had necessities because I worked my whole life” (Patricia, low-class district, 62 years old, satisfaction with retirement of 0.4). She is not critical of her retirement because, as she describes, she does not spend too much on clothes or holidays. Besides, she works informally, giving her enough for bills and food.

Other people interviewed were only able to survive because of their savings. That is the case of Elena, who has been living mainly from her savings in the bank. Her satisfaction with retirement on a fuzzy-set scale was 0.6. This situation does not allow her to go on vacation at any time of the year or to fancy restaurants; however, she has the money to pay the bills and meet the food requirements comfortably. As she comments below:

“I have savings, which I am trying to stretch like an elastic until I can... I have some savings in the bank... It is a little amount; however, I am a very methodic person to spend the money, I do not spend in useless things, only in useful ones. I leave only with what I need... at this stage of my life I do not go to buy new clothes at any time, no... you can wash the clothes, save it, and that's it”

Another aspect included in the fuzzy-set scale of satisfaction with retirement was people's expectations about it. Alvaro had lived over time with a significant amount of money, which made him live in a specific way. Alvaro continued working by choice at the moment I did the interview. He was an external consultant in a prestigious topic of his discipline. As in the other cases, he does not report any worries about his necessities (food, health, and bills). He was more worried about his family's economic situation, whom he used to help monetarily. Therefore, he was classified as having a 1 on the satisfaction scale with retirement. As he would say:

“The contributions of the house in the beach, and from another apartment that I have for savings, the contributions had me exhausted. But in general, I am very good, without any problems. Also, I had living in the country with my two daughters, and one of them had some economic problems, and I help her...”

All these cases had different expectations and emotions embedded into their experiences with retirement. Also, they live in different environments, with subjective and structural distinctions. However, the fact that questions was asked about their satisfaction with retirement tends to help us incorporate those emotions and expectations into the outcome.

The main results of the QCA applied in this research identified sufficient pathways to achieve satisfaction with retirement, and others were classified as necessary. Those two concepts, sufficient and necessary, imply different meanings, impacting the interpretation of results. To clarify those, this article has used the definition of Ragin for those two:

“A cause is defined as necessary if it must be present for a certain outcome to occur. A cause is defined as sufficient if by itself it can produce a certain outcome. This distinction is meaningful only in the context of theoretical perspectives. No cause is necessary, for example, independent of a theory that specifies it as a relevant cause. Neither necessity nor sufficiency exists independently of theories that proposes causes.”

In consonance with this logic, the forthcoming pages will present the results of those conditions that appear to be sufficient to achieve satisfaction with retirement in the case of Chile's retirees. After that, those conditions that appear necessary to achieve the same outcome are also presented. In that sense, all those conditions might be helpful in the determination of future public policies for Chile's aging population.

It is required to identify the meaning of consistency in QCA. Consistency indicates the extent to which the empirical data are used to coincide with the postulated subset relation. In general, it has been recommended that the stronger associations have a value at least >0.8 (hopefully up to 0.9), and a value between 0.6 and 0.8 would be modest (Kent, 2008). Then, in this research, both of these, the modest and higher values, are reported. Those conditions with a value <0.6 were left out of the estimation.

As has been indicated before, this article evaluated 42 conditions at the same time. The next subsection presents sufficient pathways to achieve retirement satisfaction in this context. All those sufficient conditions are provided in Table 2, and in the following pages, I will look closely into each of them. Also, I present those that are sufficient conditions alone, and then those as pathways.

All the conditions from Table 2 demonstrated a modest association with the outcome. Even though none of them is high, they are still relevant for this study's specific context. The first one is that receiving a pension closer to >$900,000 would be sufficient to achieve the outcome. Another condition close to that is the district where the person lived during the interview. In other words, living in a high-class district would be sufficient, making somehow visible high levels of inequalities in the country. This observation coincides with the literature that declared that high levels of inequality were prevalent in Chile, these being particularly visible in the unremarkable amounts of pensions that the retirees received, and the districts to which the retirees had access in which to locate their living quarters (PNUD, 2017).

The variable “Working” concerned the question of whether the person interviewed worked or not. Accordingly, the answers were working because they needed the money, or not working, or working by choice to keep themselves active. These findings show that working by choice would be sufficient to satisfy retirement.

Another variable about the current situation of the older people interviewed was their health. This variable was a crisp set, and then, there were two options: having a chronic disease or not. For the participants not having a chronical disease, this fact appears to be sufficient for bringing about an optimal degree of satisfaction in them with retirement. About this variable in particular, it is relevant to notice that many researchers had already found that health works as a main factor for wellbeing and satisfaction. Accordingly, this result is coherent, although, as has been recognized in the methods section, for future research it would be helpful to have a deep operationalization of this condition.

Next, we have those variables from the analysis applied to the SSNs. The size of the networks of older people seems to be related to their wellbeing (Bowling et al., 1995; Cornwell et al., 2008; Liu, 2019; Seeman & Berkman, 1988) and the probability of having an accident (Boyle et al., 2010). The findings in this article demonstrated something similar. This variable (size) had values between 0 and 19 or more people nominated in the network. The results show that having an SSN with 19 or more alters appears sufficient to achieve the outcome. Meanwhile, the same thing happens if we take out the kin relationships of ego, which reduced the maximum of alters nominated, having values among 0 and 10 or more. The finding would accordingly be that this variable is also sufficient.

One of the interviewees, Javiera, told me about her relationships. She used to have big groups of friends, although she had one best friend with whom she does everything. That friendship has been present for almost her whole life (since school), and they reciprocated each other with support, especially the intimate interaction. She explains to me:

“I am going to tell you something about friendship, because of the age, once you reach some age you do not get new friends... I am talking to you about real friendships...you can have thousands of people who you know, you can take a coffee with other friends, or friend of those friends, and maybe all of them are a lot... but you cannot explain what happens to me with my best friend, I said to her, “I have all these problems with this, and those other economic issues, and everything,” and she will not ask “Why?,” not at all... because she knows me and my whole trajectory, so we keep the conversation going”

Later on, in the interview, I asked how well her best friends know her family, to trace those links in the network. She answered that she knew all of them, and that they had all had been on the same holiday together a lot. After all these aspects had been covered, when I asked for the reciprocity for each dimension of support, Javiera immediately provided her answer very securely: everything reciprocated with her best friends. In this case, the best friend of Javiera would be a representation of what Lomnitz (1971) conceptualizes as compadrazgo in the Chilean context. A person who is so close to an ego appears to have a kin relationship with them. The reciprocity among them is natural and an essential part of the relationship, which they do not question. The immense depth and closeness of this relationship is brought out by the fact that Javiera said that she does not know what name to give it, because it is something more significant than simply being friends.

An analysis of the data matrix was applied with fuzzy-set membership scores, using all the conditions mentioned before. Table 2 contains its results, with sufficient paths and case distribution. As indicated before, it appeared that the consistency would be >0.8. There is only one exception for A, which was close enough (0.76) to be included. In addition, the cases covered by each membership set are also identified in Table 3. Before all this analysis, each fuzzy set condition was calibrated using the tool incorporated to compute it in fsQCA software. Also, the solution was >0.8 in consistency, as recommended by Legewie (2013).

In Table 3 is used the next symbology for each condition:

A: Having a chronical disease during his/her life.

From Table 3, we have four configurations of pathways to achieve satisfaction with retirement:

The first one is as follows: having a bigger size on their personal network (D) AND higher efficiency in it (E), made a sufficient path for satisfaction with retirement.

The second path is having a chronical disease (A), AND working by necessity (B), AND living in the low-class district (C), AND having a little personal network (D).

Next, the third pathway is composed of not having a chronical disease (A), AND working by choice (B), AND living in the high-class district (C), AND having a little personal network (D).

Finally, the fourth pathway was not having a chronical disease (A), AND working by choice (B), AND having a little personal network (D), AND a lower level of efficiency in their network (E).

The fact that the network size is relevant is coherent with the literature. The first pathway considers having a more extensive personal network (more than 11 alters) as a condition to achieve satisfaction with retirement. However, that is in combination with having a higher level of efficiency, which, as mentioned, measured the amount of time and resources that ego had to invest to reach anybody in the network. In the last pathway, having a small personal network is related to a lower efficiency level, contrary to the first pathway.

Not having a chronic disease was a condition appearing to be sufficient for achieving the outcome. However, looking closer into the covered cases provides a clearer picture into how this condition could create difficulties in the long term. For example, in the case of Josefina (low-class district, 95 years old, satisfaction with retirement: 0.2), she and her husband had had chronic diseases throughout their lives. During the interview, she recognized that economic problems were always associated with paying bills in the health care system, primarily those pertaining to tests and medications. She tells me:

“So when this started (retirement), after so much illness in my life, I could not afford the remedies well, and my family helped me, plus brothers, but after my brothers disappeared, the nephews are not the same, then there my daughter, I had never bothered her, I told her to save her and I know, but sometimes, I would give her money and not bother her to say “I need help around the house,” nothing, because we managed well, and... but then I started to get anxious (...) now I am working only to afford those medications and tests”

In general, the conditions of “working by choice” and “high-class district” are associated. The second pathway seems a good example of what had been defined in this article as a “trajectory of constraint,” while the third pathway is nearer to “trajectories of opportunities.”

Other conditions appear to be necessary conditions for achieving satisfaction with retirement. As indicated, this refers to conditions that must exist to obtain a particular outcome, although they are not necessarily sufficient to achieve it. So then, there were 21 conditions identified as necessary. Next, I will take a close look at each one and explain the associated results.

The conditions measured are living with someone else, having someone who helps in the domestic tasks, the person's age, whether schooling has been completed or not, not having children prior to 18 years of age, having had both parents in childhood, and all the support that ego has received and given; plus, density, IQV, and constrains. In Appendix 1 are all the conditions incorporated into the QCA (Table 4).

The first three conditions are an aspect of the daily life of older people. Among these three, the first two have a high association as necessary conditions: living with at least one person and having at least one person who helps with the domestic daily tasks. This makes sense, as the first could make older people feel less isolated and ensure a greater availability of support, both psychological and physical, for them. Besides, the second condition is a practical help that would be of immense assistance to older people in discharging their basic day-to-day tasks and functions, and consequently, the availability of such an assistance would imbue them with positivity day after day.

The third condition is a modest association: having a lesser age. This condition largely takes values between 0 and 1. However, among those characterized by a 0 value, there was a 60-year-old who was the youngest among the participants, and similarly among those characterized by a 1 value, there was an individual aged >95 years, who was the oldest in the sample. Then, this condition may also be associated with the health quality of the older person (Table 5).

Five conditions were added concerning the past of the older people interviewed to see if they still have some effect on their present. It appears that some of them are highly associated with necessities. Specifically, three of them seem to be necessary to achieve the outcome: having completed a school education, not having had children prior to 18 years of age (in Chile, 18 years represents the age of attaining majority), and having had both parents alive and present during their childhood. On the other hand, satisfaction of either of the following two conditions did not appear necessary: being born in the capital and commencing employment after 18 years of age. Interestingly, these long-term conditions appear to be relevant even today (Table 6).

Each support that ego received from others was measured, and some of them appear to be necessary for their SSN. The most important one could be not receiving any negative interaction and making sense of the literature. Nevertheless, on the other hand, those ties create tension in their networks and daily life (see Patricio's case in the forthcoming pages).

Besides, receiving intimate interactions, feedback, physical assistance, and positive interaction seem necessary for the outcome. Interestingly, receiving material aid appears neither as sufficient and nor essential, which makes me wonder if the older people interviewed value their relationship more than the pragmatic money they have during retirement (Table 7).

As mentioned in the literature review, the studies about the aging population networks had concentrated on what they received rather than what they gave. In that sense, incorporating those in the analysis is an innovation; however, some conditions appear necessary for the outcome. Especially in the case of two: First, that the ego does not negatively affect their alters. Second, the ego provides material aid to at least one person in his/her SSN. The latter is only relevant when the ego gives it, as it did not appear applicable the other way round.

The negative ties in the SSN are a powerful experience for any person. The results indicated that not having any negative links, from ego and/or alter, is central to the interview. Even though the person has a lot of different types of social support in their network, the experience of having one negative appears to shadow all of them. That could be seen in the case of Patricio. Every time he got the opportunity to complete the interview, he went back to talk about his relationship with his daughter. In his own words, it would be described as follows:

“and my daughter no... she only thinks on spending and spending money... it makes me angry... she treats me so bad... she said one day “I don't love you,” and with bad words... she is a whore.... and other days she said to me “father” (with a sweet voice) ... and if I want to say no, but it is difficult for me, because she gets mad with me [...] she used to tell me a lot of bad words... she makes me cry and laugh with the things that she said”

His SSN shows the presence of other types of support. For example, he recognized having a good group of friends with whom he used to have feedback and fun moments, playing a “domino” game with some of them. To illustrate, Figures 2A and 2B demonstrate, respectively, the social support Patricio derives from his alters and that which he provides to them. It could be appreciated that the negative ties as a number are tiny; however, taking into account the narratives behind these, there is so much more information that can be obtained for analysis (Table 8).

Figure 2

The last four conditions are measures calculated using the SNA literature. Density takes values between 0 and 1; then, closer to 1 means a denser network. In this case, it appears that having a denser SSN is necessary for satisfaction with retirement. That association is more substantial, especially when density is calculated incorporating the kin relationships, although the calculation not incorporating the same still seems necessary. A higher IQV and having high constraints on their SSNs appear to be necessary for retirement satisfaction.