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Social Support and its Correlation with Loneliness and Subjective Well‐being: A Cross‐cultural Study of Older Nepalese Adults
Author(s) -
Chalise Hom Nath
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
asian social work and policy review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.286
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1753-1411
pISSN - 1753-1403
DOI - 10.1111/j.1753-1411.2009.00034.x
Subject(s) - loneliness , social support , ethnic group , psychology , life satisfaction , subjective well being , population , gerontology , demography , social psychology , sociology , medicine , happiness , anthropology
Population aging in Nepal is a recent phenomenon, due more to demographic changes than to socio‐economic development. The study had three goals: to analyze the social support exchange among elderly men and women; to discover the main sources of support in loneliness and subjective well‐being in the elderly; and to study the cross‐cultural differences in support among elderly Chhetri ( N = 137, mean age = 69.1 [7.2] years) and Newar people ( N = 195, mean age = 68.8 [7.7] years) in one ward in Kathmandu. The data were collected using face‐to‐face interviews. The dependent variables were loneliness and subjective well‐being (SWB). The results for both ethnic Chhetri and Newar respondents show that their major support comes from their children living in the same household and their spouses. I conclude that the sources of social support and social support exchange are similar between the two castes/ethnicities and that there are no cross‐cultural differences between them in terms of support for loneliness and SWB‐life stability, although there are cross‐cultural differences in their SWB‐life satisfaction. Providing social support to friends and neighbors appears to be related to less loneliness and increased SWB in both castes/ethnicities.