Harasemiw Oksana, Newall Nancy, Shooshtari Shahin, Mackenzie Corey, Menec Verena
1 Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
2 Department of Psychology, Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.
Res Aging. 2018 Sep;40(8):715-739. doi: 10.1177/0164027517734587. Epub 2017 Oct 5.
It is well-documented that social isolation is detrimental to health and well-being. What is less clear is what types of social networks allow older adults to get the social support they need to promote health and well-being. In this study, we identified social network types in a national sample of older Canadians and explored whether they are associated with perceived availability of different types of social support (affectionate, emotional, or tangible, and positive social interactions). Data were drawn from the baseline questionnaire of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging for participants aged 65-85 (unweighted n = 8,782). Cluster analyses revealed six social network groups. Social support generally declined as social networks became more restricted; however, different patterns of social support availability emerged for different social network groups. These findings suggest that certain types of social networks place older adults at risk of not having met specific social support needs.
有充分的文献记载表明，社会隔离对健康和幸福有害。尚不清楚的是，何种类型的社交网络能让老年人获得促进健康和幸福所需的社会支持。在本研究中，我们在加拿大老年人的全国样本中确定了社交网络类型，并探讨了它们是否与不同类型社会支持（深情的、情感的或实际的，以及积极的社会互动）的感知可得性相关。数据取自加拿大老龄化纵向研究针对65 - 85岁参与者的基线调查问卷（未加权n = 8782）。聚类分析揭示了六个社交网络群体。随着社交网络变得更加受限，社会支持总体上有所下降；然而，不同社交网络群体出现了不同的社会支持可得性模式。这些发现表明，某些类型的社交网络使老年人面临无法满足特定社会支持需求的风险。
