How does social support affect subjective well-being among Chinese widowed older adults?

Jun Zhang · Chao Yang

5 citations0/0 files storedFrontiers in Public Health

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Aging and Gerontology Research Aging, Elder Care, and Social Issues Aging, Health, and Disability

Abstract

Background: Social support (SS) is an important factor influencing subjective well-being (SWB) in older adults. This is especially true for the special group of widowed older adults (WOA). Widowhood means that older adults have lost their most important SS, and therefore, the search for a guardian from outside the spouse becomes a central issue in ensuring the SWB of WOA. Methods: The data for this paper were obtained from CGSS 2021, a large national social survey in China. We operationalized SWB as an individual's overall perception of his or her experience of happiness using 'affective well-being' (i.e., emphasizing an individual's positive affective experiences), and scores were calculated using a Likert scale. This study used linear regression modeling to examine the impact of SS on the SWB of WOA (aged 60 and above). Results: It was found that, first, this study presents the role of different circles of SS on the SWB of WOA, fully highlighting the importance of social context. Specifically, daughters, neighbors, and relatives constitute the guardians of the SWB for WOA in rural, whereas daughters and friends constitute the guardians of the SWB for WOA in rural. Second, the protective resources provided by the guardians not only serve as a buffer for WOA in distress but also reduce the likelihood of negative events occurring, thereby increasing WOA's SWB. Discussion: This paper partially corroborates the findings of established studies on the topic of SS and SWB among older adults and the above findings not only help us to further explain the relationship between SS and SWB theoretically but also help us to rationalize the construction of SS for WOA practically.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 5 citations exist upstream.

References

1999Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress.2001The Influence of Culture, Community, and the Nested‐Self in the Stress Process: Advancing Conservation of Resources Theory 2002Personality, Culture, and Subjective Well-Being: Emotional and Cognitive Evaluations of Life 1980Convoys over the life course: attachment, roles, and social support 2003Resource loss, resource gain, and emotional outcomes among inner city women.1995Does Marriage Matter?1987Social Networks in Adult Life and a Preliminary Examination of the Convoy Model 2000Similarity of the Relations between Marital Status and Subjective Well-Being Across Cultures

Cited by

2026The association between physical exercise and the subjective well-being of older adults—the mediating role of three-dimensional capital

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.