Convoy Model Social Network Mapping

The convoy model of social relations conceives of each person as moving through life surrounded by a 'convoy' of significant others who provide and receive social support. Introduced by Robert Kahn and Toni Antonucci in 1980, the model frames personal networks as dynamic structures shaped by stable attachments, changing social roles, and life-course transitions. Its signature elicitation tool is the hierarchical mapping technique, in which respondents place the people important to them into three concentric circles around a focal self, with the innermost circle reserved for those so close that life without them is hard to imagine. From this map an analyst codes the convoy's structure, composition, and the support functions its members serve, distinguishing aid, affection, and affirmation. The approach yields a person-centered, qualitative-plus-quantitative portrait of social embeddedness that complements count-based scales. It has become a foundational framework in gerontology and life-span developmental psychology for studying how relationships sustain well-being across aging.