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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Age trends in daily social contact patterns | | Author(s) | Benjamin Cornwell |
| Journal title | Research on Aging, vol 33, no 5, September 2011 |
| Pages | pp 598-631 |
| Source | http://roa.sagepub.com/ |
| Keywords | Social contacts ; Social interaction ; Personal relationships ; Age groups [elderly] ; Life span. |
| Annotation | Research on older adults' social integration largely focuses on time-indefinite access to social support, community involvement and network connectedness, however little research has examined the actual amount of social contact older adults have on a typical day. This study used nationally representative data on 92,698 adults - collected in the 2003-2009 American Time Use Surveys - to examine age-related trends in rates of everyday contact. Study findings revealed that older adults have substantially lower rates of social contact compared with younger and middle-aged adults, especially among women. A significant portion, but not all, of the age-related variation in contact patterns was attributable to life-course factors like living arrangements. The author closes by considering several potential explanations for these trends and by urging social gerontologists to pay closer attention to the causes and consequences of microsocial contact patterns among older adults. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-121026066 A |
| Classmark | TOA: TMA: DS: BB: BG6 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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