Social networks, or the kin, friends, and other close associates of primary partners (e.g., spouses), can have important influences on the internal character of a marriage or family. Elizabeth Bott (1971) was among the first to recognize this connection in a study conducted in the early 1950s that involved extensive interviews with 20 London families. In a now classic hypothesis, she argued that: $@#*^%#@#ldquo;The degree of segregation in the role$@#*^%#@#hyphen;relationship of husband and wife varies directly with the connectedness of the family's social network$@#*^%#@#rdquor; (p. 60). Spouses with separate networks, where members knew one another (i.e., highly interconnected or dense networks), were thought to have relatively separate conjugal roles, to perform household labor separately, and to engage in separate leisure activities. In contrast, spouses with low$@#*^%#@#hyphen;density networks were thought to have relatively joint conjugal roles and leisure activities.