Due P, Holstein B, Lund R, Modvig J, Avlund K
Department of Social Medicine and Psychosocial Health, Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Soc Sci Med. 1999 Mar;48(5):661-73. doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(98)00381-5.
We introduce a conceptual framework with social relations as the main concept and the structure and the function of social relations as subconcepts. The structure of social relations covers aspects of formal relations and social network. The function of social relations covers social support, social anchorage and relational strain. We use this conceptual framework to describe social relations in the Danish population, with questionnaire data from the Danish Longitudinal Health Behaviour Study including a random sample of each of the age groups 25-, 50-, 60-and 70-year olds, N = 2,011. The postal questionnaires were answered by a random sample in each of the age groups. The results show marked age and gender differences in both the structure and the function of social relations. The social network, measured as weekly contacts, weakens with age and so does instrumental support. Emotional support is unrelated to this decline in contact frequency and appears to be at the same level for younger and older individuals. Relational strain, measured as conflicts, declines with age for all kinds of social relations. The weakening of the social network with age does not seem to affect the level of emotional support and in turn seems to be partly compensated for by a simultaneous decline in relational strain.
我们引入了一个概念框架，将社会关系作为主要概念，将社会关系的结构和功能作为子概念。社会关系的结构涵盖正式关系和社会网络等方面。社会关系的功能涵盖社会支持、社会归属感和关系紧张。我们使用这个概念框架来描述丹麦人口中的社会关系，数据来自丹麦纵向健康行为研究的问卷调查，该研究对25岁、50岁、60岁和70岁年龄组的每个组进行了随机抽样，样本量为N = 2,011。每个年龄组的随机样本回答了邮寄问卷。结果显示，社会关系的结构和功能在年龄和性别上都存在显著差异。以每周联系次数衡量的社会网络随着年龄增长而减弱，工具性支持也是如此。情感支持与联系频率的下降无关，对于年轻人和老年人来说似乎处于相同水平。以冲突衡量的关系紧张，在各种社会关系中都随着年龄增长而下降。社会网络随着年龄增长而减弱，这似乎并不影响情感支持水平，反过来，关系紧张的同时下降似乎在一定程度上对此起到了补偿作用。
