Melissa L Cannon, Lynelle Bergman, Jessica M Finlay
Gerontology: Aging and Older Adulthood Department, Western Oregon University, Monmouth, OR, USA.
Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
J Aging Environ. 2024;38(4):381-397. doi: 10.1080/26892618.2023.2225179. Epub 2023 Jun 28.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread disruption and upheaval across communities. This qualitative study uses data from the national COVID-19 Coping Study to investigate how community engagement shifted during the pandemic among older Americans. We conducted reflexive thematic analysis of open-ended online survey responses from a random subsample of 500 participants. Our analysis identified ways in which participants altered sources of community and engagement, struggled with engagement, and increased engagement, and how experiences differed among bonding ties compared to bridging ties. Results reinforce the importance of third places for heterogeneous social connections and inform strategies to strengthen community among older Americans.
新冠疫情给各个社区带来了广泛的混乱和动荡。这项定性研究利用全国新冠应对研究的数据，调查疫情期间美国老年人的社区参与度是如何变化的。我们对500名参与者的随机子样本的开放式在线调查回复进行了反思性主题分析。我们的分析确定了参与者改变社区和参与来源的方式、在参与方面遇到的困难以及参与度的提高，以及与弱关系相比，强关系中的体验有何不同。研究结果强化了第三空间对于异质社会联系的重要性，并为加强美国老年人社区凝聚力的策略提供了参考。
