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The Multifaceted Nature of Social Support in a Community Sample of Elderly Women
Author(s) -
Heller Kenneth,
Mansbach William E.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1984.tb01109.x
Subject(s) - social support , attendance , construct (python library) , church attendance , social network (sociolinguistics) , psychology , variety (cybernetics) , gerontology , interpersonal ties , sample (material) , social psychology , medicine , computer science , political science , religiosity , world wide web , chemistry , chromatography , law , social media , programming language , artificial intelligence
Forty‐three elderly women at two low‐income city nutrition sites participated in a study of social ties and social support. As predicted, discrete facets of support were differentiated from among a variety of social network and support variables. Age was negatively related to network size, amount of emotional support, and time spent with confidantes and relatives. With age controlled, the best predictors of life satisfaction were network size, frequency of church attendance, and proportion of network members considered intimates. Results are discussed with regard to the multidimensionality of the social support construct.