Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Aging Ment Health. 2011 Jul 1;15(5):541-7. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2010.551340.
Reciprocity in support exchanges is believed to be beneficial to psychological well-being. This study examined perceived emotional and instrumental support balance from either family or friends, and the relationship between each support balance and life satisfaction among young and older adults.
The sample included 107 older adults and 96 young adults. They rated their life satisfaction, as well as the emotional and instrumental support they provided to and received from family members and friends.
Consistent with the socioemotional selectivity theory, age differences were found in perceived emotional support balance with friends. Older adults reported more emotionally reciprocal friendships than did young adults. Moreover, contrary to the equity rule, emotionally over-benefited friendships were associated with higher life satisfaction for older adults than were reciprocal friendships.
Age, type of support, and source of support should be considered when studying the relationships between support balance and psychological well-being.
支持交换中的互惠被认为对心理健康有益。本研究考察了来自家庭或朋友的感知情感和工具支持平衡，以及每种支持平衡与年轻和老年成年人生活满意度之间的关系。
该样本包括 107 名老年人和 96 名年轻人。他们评估了自己的生活满意度，以及他们向家庭成员和朋友提供的情感和工具支持，以及他们从家庭成员和朋友那里获得的情感和工具支持。
与社会情感选择理论一致，在与朋友的感知情感支持平衡方面发现了年龄差异。与年轻人相比，老年人报告说他们的友谊更具有情感互惠性。此外，与公平规则相反，与互惠友谊相比，情感上受益更多的友谊与老年人的生活满意度更高相关。
在研究支持平衡与心理健康之间的关系时，应考虑年龄、支持类型和支持来源。
