Social exchanges and subjective well-being among older Chinese: Does age make a difference?

Abstract

We examined the effects of social support and negative interactions on life satisfaction and depressed affect among older Chinese, and age differences in these associations. The sample consisted of 2,943 Chinese elders aged 60 to 94 years old. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results suggest that both social support and negative interactions have significant contributions to life satisfaction and depressed affect. Social support has stronger effects than negative interactions on life satisfaction; their effects on depressed affect are comparable. Further, depressed affect of old-old (70+) Chinese reacts more strongly to both social support and negative interactions than the young-old (60-69). KeywordsChinese elderly; social support; negative interactions; mental health; heterogeneity in old age Social relationships have positive ("social support," e.g., emotional and instrumental support) and negative aspects ("negative interactions," e.g., criticism and demand), and both are related to older adults' well-being (Ingersoll-Dayton, Morgan, & Antonucci, 1997;Newsom, Nishishiba, Morgan, & Rook, 2003;Okun & Keith, 1998). However, few studies are based on data from developing nations. In addition, most previous investigations have treated older people of all ages as homogenous in terms of stage of development, in spite of evidence showing age variation in social relationships and physical and mental health within older persons (Krause, 2005;Nelson & Dannefer, 1992).This study focuses on older adults in China. Similar to many developed nations, the Chinese population is aging rapidly (Kinsella & Velkoff, 2001). Family has been the primary institution for supporting older people in Chinese society. Confucian teaching emphasizes that children should take care of their parents (Leung, 1997). The lack of pensions and formal services in China also leaves many older persons no choice but depend on their families (Gu & Liang, 1994). While the economic reform since 1978 has led to a rapid economic growth, the Chinese government has not increased public support in old age (Hsiao & Liu, 1996;Jackson & Howe, 2004 Relationships between Social Exchanges and Well-BeingControversy exists with regard to the relative importance of positive and negative social exchanges on older persons' well-being. Some suggest that negative exchanges have stronger emotional consequences than positive ones (Newsom et al., 2003;Rook, 1990); others suggest the reverse (Okun & Keith, 1998). Still others show that the effects of positive and negative exchanges are domain-specific in that each contributes to congruent dimensions of well-being, respectively (Ingersoll-Dayton et al., 1997). A meta analysis reports that the relative impact of positive and negative exchanges depends on how social support is measured (Finch, Okun, Pool, & Ruehlman, 1999). While the potency of negative exchanges seems to be larger than that of enacted support, perceived support measures are comparable to negative exchanges in their effects on psychological distress. Mo...

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