Bergstrom M J, Holmes M E
Department of Communication, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84112, USA.
Health Commun. 2000;12(4):377-406. doi: 10.1207/S15327027HC1204_4.
Social theories of successful aging attempt to explain how individuals adapt to changes characteristically associated with aging and to predict whether older adults' adaptations will lead to successful aging. The death of a spouse and the accompanying bereavement process entail dramatic changes to personal networks and experience to which individuals must adapt to age successfully. Network text analysis (including word frequencies, cluster analysis, and multidimensional scaling) of advice for adjusting to, and coping with, the loss of a spouse given by a sample of 60 bereaved spouses (mean age = 68) at 6 points in time after the death of their marital partner (3-4 weeks to 24 months) reveal respondents' lay theories of successful aging. Thematic clusters address social positioning and qualifiers, activity, communication, time, and spousal characteristics. Results indicate respondents frame their advice as unique to their context of social relationships while providing support for activity theory and negatively addressing disengagement theory.
成功老龄化的社会理论试图解释个体如何适应与老龄化相关的典型变化，并预测老年人的适应是否会导致成功老龄化。配偶的死亡以及随之而来的丧亲过程会给个人社交网络和经历带来巨大变化，而个体必须适应这些变化才能成功老龄化。对60位丧偶配偶（平均年龄 = 68岁）在其婚姻伴侣去世后的6个时间点（3 - 4周至24个月）给出的关于适应和应对配偶死亡的建议进行网络文本分析（包括词频、聚类分析和多维尺度分析），揭示了受访者关于成功老龄化的通俗理论。主题聚类涉及社会定位和限定词、活动、沟通、时间以及配偶特征。结果表明，受访者将他们的建议视为特定于其社会关系背景的独特建议，同时为活动理论提供了支持，并对脱离理论进行了负面回应。
