Structural and functional social support in elderly objective and subjective health ratings

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the causes that explain the discrepancies between the effects of social relationships on health and wellness of the elderly people. Several disciplines of health sciences have developed different theories to explain the evidence that confirm the positive effects of social relations. Furthermore, there is acumuative evidence confirming most of the predictions derived from its principles. However, the empirical evidence has not always confirmed these beneficial relationships and sometimes these evidences contradict some of the theoretical predictions. Even, it is not difficult to find reversed effects. In this paper we follow some of the approaches developed from Social Psychology which analyze the different effects of social relationships on the health of older people. Two types of aspects of social relations have served to this purpose. First, the structural aspects (i.e., frequency of intercourse). Second, qualitative-functional aspects of great tradition in estudies of quality of life and wellbeing of older people (i.e. social support). Following the Convoy Model, we measured perceived social support and frecuency of relationships in 168 spaniards, men and women (aged 62 years old and more). We analyze these discrepancies in the light of the underlying mechanisms.

Social Support, General Self-Efficacy, Fear of Falling, and Physical Activity Among Older Adults in a Middle-Income Country

“…The widely varied measures of social support used in previous studies could make comparison with the present report difficult. However, previous reports had reported low ( Bai et al, 2018 ) and high ( Iglesias & Arias, 2015 ) levels of social support among older adults. The fact that the setting of the present study practice extended family setting where the family members have a filial responsibility of taking care of their old or sick relatives might explain the high level of social support recorded in this study ( Okoye et al, 2019 ).…”

Integrating social support into interventions among the elderly in nursing homes: a scoping review protocol

“…27 31 It is noteworthy that specific dimensions of supportive function referring to both of quantitative and qualitative aspects depict beneficial roles on health as personal resources in different stress life events. 31 Veiel pointed out that types of available support should be included in the social support assessment. 32 In addition, Wills and Shinar depicted the dimensions of available support or functional support relating to social support intervention in terms of emotional support, instrumental support, informational support, companionship support and validation which provide specific theoretically expected benefits for coping efforts.…”

Sustained Social Entrepreneurship: The Moderating Roles of Prior Experience and Networking Ability

“…Stephan et al [59] found that both formal and informal support systems play active roles in providing the resources with which SEIs are 'forged'. However, informal support (support from family, friends, and acquaintances) could provide inimitable resources that have far reaching effects on entrepreneurial intent than formal (government) support [12,61]. In fact, Greve and Salaff [62] found that an entrepreneur's social network plays different roles at each stage of the entrepreneurial journey, but most especially at the planning stage.…”