Minkler M
Health Educ Q. 1981 Summer;8(2):147-65. doi: 10.1177/109019818100800202.
The large body of evidence linking social support and health provides an important supplement to earlier theory and research suggesting the more direct role social contacts may play in influencing health behavior. Three major hypotheses have been set forth concerning the precise mechanism of action through which social support may work to maintain health and decrease susceptibility to illness. Each of these theoretical positions is described and its empirical base examined. The particular relevance of social support theory for work with the elderly is discussed. The concept of social marginality, and such network properties as strength of ties, reciprocity and network size are examined in light of their implications for the design of programs aimed in part at fostering social support among the elderly. Several examples of innovative health education programs are used to illustrate the relevance of different theoretical principles in practice settings. Attention finally is focused on the need for looking beyond social networks to the social policy and environmental contexts within which they operate. Facilitating change in those social and institutional policies which mitigate against network development and maintenance among the elderly is suggested as an important task for health education theorists and practitioners.
大量将社会支持与健康联系起来的证据，为早期的理论和研究提供了重要补充，这些理论和研究表明社会接触在影响健康行为方面可能发挥更直接的作用。关于社会支持可能通过何种精确作用机制来维持健康并降低患病易感性，已经提出了三大假设。本文将对这些理论立场逐一进行描述，并审视其实证基础。还将讨论社会支持理论与老年工作的特殊相关性。鉴于社会边缘化概念以及诸如关系强度、互惠性和网络规模等网络特性对部分旨在促进老年人社会支持的项目设计具有影响，故对其进行审视。通过几个创新健康教育项目的实例来说明不同理论原则在实际环境中的相关性。最后，注意力集中在超越社会网络，关注其运作所处的社会政策和环境背景的必要性上。建议促进那些不利于老年人网络发展和维持的社会及机构政策的变革，这是健康教育理论家和从业者的一项重要任务。
