Our findings suggest that both support and strain are important predictors
of well-being. Although these social exchange variables were related to
health measures, their explanatory power in this domain was weak compared
with other variables such as age and sex. However, physical health is
an outcome that is affected by a large constellation of factors, of which
interactions with one’s network would admittedly play a comparably small
role. That such psychosocial variables can explain any of the variance in
these types of outcomes suggests social network variables are a meaningful
area of study, given that such variables are prime candidates for manipulation
through interventions