Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2015 Jul;70(4):597-606. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbu071. Epub 2014 Jun 12.
This study considers the association between personal network density and risk of elder mistreatment among American adults.
Using egocentric network data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, we employ logistic and negative binomial regression to predict recent experience of elder mistreatment. We further unpack the density mistreatment association by linking perpetrators to the victim's network and by assessing their position within its structure.
As hypothesized, older adults with dense networks had a lower risk of elder mistreatment. Interestingly, the perpetrators of these harmful acts were often found within seniors' close networks-though there was little evidence to suggest that perpetrators themselves were poorly embedded in the network.
Results highlight how network-level phenomena can operate distinctively from dyadic mistreatment processes. Dense personal networks seem to provide structural protection against elder mistreatment, even as many offensive acts are committed by those that are close to the victim and relatively well embedded in their network.
本研究考察了美国成年人个人网络密度与虐待老年人风险之间的关系。
利用全国社会生活、健康和老龄化项目的自下而上网络数据，我们采用逻辑回归和负二项回归来预测最近发生的老年人虐待事件。我们进一步通过将施害者与受害者的网络联系起来，并评估他们在网络结构中的位置，来剖析网络密度与虐待之间的关系。
正如假设的那样，网络密度大的老年人遭受虐待的风险较低。有趣的是，这些伤害行为的施害者往往来自老年人的亲密网络中——尽管几乎没有证据表明施害者本身在网络中的嵌入程度很差。
研究结果突出了网络层面的现象如何与二元虐待过程不同。密集的个人网络似乎为防止老年人受到虐待提供了结构上的保护，即使许多攻击行为是由那些与受害者亲近且在其网络中相对嵌入程度较高的人实施的。
