AGING WELL WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY
AGING WELL WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY
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DOI：
10.1177/0002764295039002008
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发表时间：
1995-11-01
影响因子：
3.2
通讯作者：
BLIESZNER, R
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
ADAMS, RG;BLIESZNER, R
在老年学文献中，有一个假设贯穿始终，即有朋友和与家庭成员的积极关系总比没有好。自20世纪60年代以来，当社会老年学家开始辩论脱离理论和活动理论的相对优点时，研究人员使用了朋友的数量，活跃的家庭关系的存在，以及成年人与这些假定的估计数的接触量作为老化的指标。然而，最近，研究人员已经认识到，并非所有的人际关系都是好的，也不是所有的社会交往都会对老年人产生积极的影响（例如，Rook，1984，1989）。在考虑人际关系和健康老化之间的联系时，有必要解构友谊和亲属关系，检查它们的无数维度，并认识到仅仅拥有关系并不意味着某人正在健康老化。研究人员倾向于假设所有的人际关系都是积极的，这并不是这一主题调查的唯一局限性。在家庭和友谊文献中，样本往往不够充分，要么代表非常特定的老年人亚群，要么根本不代表任何人群（即雪球，志愿者或其他非概率样本）。人际关系研究者倾向于研究单个受访者，而不是成对的朋友或家庭成员。当他们研究二人组时，他们经常孤立地研究，而不是在家庭或友谊网络的背景下考虑。这两篇文献也主要是描述性的，而不是理论性的，因此，我们对人际关系的了解只不过是所有研究结果的列表，每一篇人际关系文献都有额外的局限性。例如，研究人员很少对友谊进行纵向研究，因此无法研究友谊随着年龄的增长而发生的变化，也无法区分年龄、时期和群体效应。老年学友谊研究者通常研究单一种族（几乎总是白种人）或单一性别（通常是女性）
An assumption runs throughout the gerontological literature that having friends and active relationships with family members is better than not having them. Since the 1960s, when social gerontologists began debating the relative merits of the disengagement and activity theories, researchers have used the number offriends, the existence of active family relationships, and the amount of contactolder adults have with these presumedintimates as indicators ofaging well. Recently, however, researchers have recognized that not all personal relationships are good ones and not all social interactions affect older adults positively (eg, Rook, 1984, 1989). In considering the connection between personal relationships and aging well, it is thus necessary to deconstruct friendship and kin relationships, to examine their myriad dimensions, and to recognize that merely having relationships is not an indication that someone is aging well. The tendency of researchers to assume that all personal relationships are positive is not the only limitation characteristic of the investigations on this topic. In both the family and friendship literatures, samples are often less than adequate, either being representative of very specific subpopulations of older adults or not being representative of any population at all (ie, snowball, volunteer, or other nonprobability samples). Personal relationship researchers tend to study single respondents rather than pairs offriends or family members. When they do investigate dyads, they often study them in isolation rather than considering them in the context of the family or friendship network. Both literatures are also primarily descriptive ratherthantheoretically motivated, and, consequently, what is known about relationships is little more than a list of the findings of all studies.Each of these personal relationship literatures has additional limitations. For example, researchers have rarely studied friendships longitudinally, making it impossible to examine changes in friendship as people age and to separate out age, period, and cohort effects. Gerontological friendship researchers usually study single-race (almost always Caucasian) or single-sex (usually female)