| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
The relationships that matter
— social network site use and social wellbeing among older adults in the United States of America | | Author(s) | Rebecca P Yu, Ryan J McCammon, Nicole B Ellison, Kenneth M Langa |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 36, no 9, October 2016 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, October 2016 |
| Pages | pp 1826-1852 |
| Source | journals.cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Well being ; Internet ; Usage [services] ; Friendship ; Family relationships ; Social contacts ; Correlation ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | An increasing number of middle-aged and older Americans are using social network sites (SNSs, or social media), but little research has addressed how SNS use is associated with social well-being outcomes in this population. The authors used a nationally representative sample of 1,620 Americans older than 50 from the 2012 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine the relationship between older adults' SNS use and social well-being associated with non-kin and kin relations, and to explore how these associations vary by age. Results of ordinary least-squares regression analyses suggest that SNS use is positively associated with non-kin-related social well-being outcomes, including perceived support from friends (ß = 0.13; p < 0.001; N = 460) and feelings of connectedness (ß = 0.10; p < 0.001; N = 463). Regression models employing interaction terms of age and SNS use further reveal that SNS use contributes to feelings of connectedness to a greater extent as people age (ß = 0.10; p < 0.001; N = 463). Of all kin-related social well-being outcomes, SNS use only predicts increased perceived support from children (ß = 0.08; p < 0.05; N = 410), and age negatively shapes this relationship (ß = -0.14; p < 0.001; N = 410). As older people engage with an increasingly smaller and narrower network with a greater proportion of kin contacts, the results suggest that SNS use may help older adults access differential social benefits throughout later life. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-161011003 A |
| Classmark | D:F:5HH: 3OB: QLD: DS:SX: DS:SJ: TOA: 49: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|