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Since the 1970s, the role of social networks in tracing the underlying epidemiology of illness, distress, disease and disability; and, in understanding how people identify and respond to these crises, has become a mainstay of social and behavioral science research. In this piece, we introduce the papers in this volume in three ways. First, we summarize basic tenants of a social network approach, laying out what research has been able to support to date. Second, to avoid the danger of continuing to do more and more network studies that merely replicate what we already know rather than opening up new areas of understanding, we return to the earliest roots of the social network perspective. Third, we use this review in tandem with the volume's papers to mark the cutting-edge boundaries of current research and to identify the issues and questions that remain.

This paper examines possible explanations for gender differences in depressive symptomatology. Using a life span framework, two explanations of this difference are explored: women's higher likelihood of experiencing life strains and women's more social network relational orientation. Data are drawn from a regional stratified probability sample of 1,436 people ranging in age from 18 to 93. The findings indicate that the magnitude of gender differences in depressive symptoms does change over the life span, that life strains and social network relational orientation do influence the magnitude of gender differences and such influence varies with age. These findings suggest the importance of a life span perspective, as well as life strains and a social network relational orientation for understanding the frequently documented gender difference in depressive symptomatology.

Private alcohol problem treatment in the United States arose from a social movement that began after Prohibition and culminated in the founding of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in 1970. Using a treatment model that incorporated much of the ideology of Alcoholics Anonymous, an isomorphic set of private treatment centers grew rapidly across the country with support and assistance from NIAAA. As this support diminished and cost containment emerged, a crisis struck the population of treatment centers, leading to many closures. Nonetheless, most of the centers have survived. This chapter uses data from a national longitudinal study of privately funded alcohol problem treatment centers to illustrate the transformation of the treatment industry during the 1990s. We argue that this transformation results from an increased difficulty in obtaining treatment funding due to the health care cost-containment practices of managed care.