Relational burden, depression, and loneliness among American older adults: an inquiry into the 'dark side of social capital'.

Unlike prior research using conventional measures of social capital (e.g. trust, frequency of social interaction, and organizational participation) to evaluate its potential downside, our study contributes to the literature by directly operationalizing the concept of 'relational burden', stress due to excessive demands from others, at individual and contextual levels of analysis.