Department of Gerontology, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA.
Gerontologist. 2021 Aug 13;61(6):888-896. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnaa197.
Social media communication offers a medium for helping older people stay socially and emotionally connected with others. This study investigated the association between social media communication with close social ties and loneliness among community-dwelling older adults. The study also examined the mediating roles of social support and social contact.
Four waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study (2010/2012 and 2014/2016) were used to address the research questions (N = 7,524). A path model was estimated to examine the association between social media communication and older adults' loneliness. We also examined whether the association between social media communication and loneliness was mediated by perceived social support from close social ties (children, other family members, and friends) and frequency of contact with social network members (phone, in-person contact, and writing letters/e-mail).
The results showed that frequent social media communication was associated with lower levels of loneliness, adjusting for previous levels of loneliness. The relationship between social media communication and loneliness was mediated by perceived social support and social contact. Thus, social media communication was associated with higher levels of perceived social support and social contact, which were related to lower levels of loneliness among older adults.
These findings suggested that social media communication may be considered an intervention to reduce loneliness among older people by increasing levels of social support and social contact.
社交媒体交流为帮助老年人与他人保持社交和情感联系提供了一种媒介。本研究调查了与亲密社交关系的社交媒体交流与社区居住的老年人孤独感之间的关联。该研究还检验了社会支持和社会接触的中介作用。
使用来自健康与退休研究（2010/2012 年和 2014/2016 年）的四波数据来解决研究问题（N=7524）。估计了路径模型，以检验社交媒体交流与老年人孤独感之间的关联。我们还检验了社交媒体交流与孤独感之间的关联是否通过亲密社交关系（子女、其他家庭成员和朋友）的感知社会支持和与社交网络成员的接触频率（电话、面对面接触和写信/电子邮件）来中介。
结果表明，在调整先前的孤独水平后，频繁的社交媒体交流与较低的孤独感相关。社交媒体交流与孤独感之间的关系由感知社会支持和社会接触所中介。因此，社交媒体交流与较高的感知社会支持和社会接触相关，这与老年人较低的孤独感有关。
这些发现表明，通过增加社会支持和社会接触，社交媒体交流可以被视为一种减少老年人孤独感的干预措施。
