The composition of social support networks
On average, respondents had significantly fewer people to rely on for emotional support than for social companionship. Statistically significant differences between the characteristics of the two types of social support networks can also be observed in terms of percentage of kin, frequency of in-person communication, and mobile phone communication with their alters. Similarly, on average, they were in more frequent in-person and mobile phone contact with emotional support network members than with the people who provided them social companionship. it is interesting to note that non-significant differences between the two types of support networks were found for the frequency of landline phone communication. the paired-sample test results revealed that there were no significant differences between the two types of social support networks with reference to the average alter’s age and tie duration.