scholarly journals The role of communication technology across the life course: A field guide to social support in East York

2021 ◽  
pp. 026540752110568
Author(s):  
Anabel Quan-Haase ◽  
Molly-Gloria Harper ◽  
Barry Wellman
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Hard Times ◽  
The Life Course

This paper builds on a body of work over the decades that examines how East Yorkers give and receive support. We go beyond the earlier work taking into consideration communication technologies and how they play a role in the ways people exchange social support across the life course. We draw on 101 in-depth interviews conducted in 2013–2014 to shed light on the support networks of a sample of East York residents and discern the role of communication technologies in the exchange of different types of social support across age groups. Our findings show that not much has changed since the 1960s in terms of the social ties that our sample of East Yorkers have, and the types of support mobilized via social networks: companionship, small and large services, emotional aid, and financial support. What has changed is how communication technologies interweave in complex ways with different types of social ties (partners, siblings, friends, etc.) to mobilize social support. We found that communication technologies helped siblings and extended kin to increase the frequency of interaction and help exchange support at a distance. Communication technologies helped solidify friendship ties by providing a continuous flow of interaction. We draw implications for theories of social support and for social policy associated with interventions aimed at helping vulnerable groups cope in hard times such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Age and Social Support Seeking: Understanding the Role of Perceived Social Costs to Others

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (7) ◽  
pp. 1104-1116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Jiang ◽  
Aimee Drolet ◽  
Heejung S. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Social Costs ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Social Support Seeking ◽  
Support Seeking

We examined age differences in the use of different types of social support and the reasons for these differences. We found that older adults (age 60+) seek explicit social support less compared with young adults (age 18-25), but there is no difference in implicit social support seeking. Concerns about the potential social costs of seeking explicit support mediate the age differences in explicit social support seeking. Whereas young adults view this strategy as conferring more benefits than costs, older adults have a more balanced view of the costs and benefits of explicit social support seeking. Older and young adults do not differ in perceptions of the relative costs versus benefits of implicit social support seeking. Finally, we found older adults benefit more from implicit (vs. explicit) social support emotionally than young adults, which further explains why age groups differ in their use of explicit versus implicit social support.

Folklore and Folklife of American Age Groups and Aging

2018 ◽  
pp. 844-866
Author(s):  
Mary L. Sellers
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Group Identity ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Folk Traditions ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
Infancy And Early Childhood ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Pregnancy And Birth

Folklore occurs at every stage of a person’s life, and this chapter covers the way folklore and folklife across, and of, the life course has been studied. Six divisions in the life course that mark traditions of age groups as well as perceived stages in the United States are pregnancy and birth, infancy and early childhood, childhood and adolescence, adulthood, seniority, and death. Although much of the scholarship of age groups has been on the beginning and end of life, I demonstrate the conditions of aging in adolescence through the senior years that generate folklore and should be studied in relation to formation of age-group identity. This chapter emphasizes the use of folklore as an adaptation to aging. It examines the connection of folk traditions to the role that anxiety plays in the aging process, the formation of self and group identity, and the rites of passage that mark transitions from one stage to another. It shows that the presence of invented and emerging traditions indicates changing values and beliefs across the life course and encourages research in age-based research as a basic component of folklore and folklife studies.

Introduction: Stress and the Life Course during Hard Times

2001 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Clifford L. Broman ◽  
V. Lee Hamilton ◽  
William S. Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Hard Times ◽  
The Life Course

Positive Mental Health in Youth with ADHD: Exploring the Role of Social Support

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Laura Harris-Lane ◽  
Jacqueline Hesson ◽  
Ken Fowler ◽  
Nicholas Harris
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Attention Deficit ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Positive Mental Health ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Youth With Adhd

Positive mental health in youth has important implications for overall well-being. This study examined the extent to which different types of social support are associated with positive mental health among individuals, ages 15–24, diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Compared to respondents without a diagnosis of ADHD, those with a diagnosis had significantly lower scores on measures of positive mental health and on four of five types of social support. Among the five types of social support, social integration and reassurance of worth were found to be significant predictors of positive mental health in respondents diagnosed with ADHD.

Environment

2013 ◽  
pp. 290-295
Author(s):  
Christopher R. Holroyd ◽  
Nicholas C. Harvey ◽  
Mark H. Edwards ◽  
Cyrus Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Rheumatoid Arthritis ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Disease Pattern ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Life Course

Musculoskeletal disease covers a broad spectrum of conditions whose aetiology comprises variable genetic and environmental contributions. More recently it has become clear that, particularly early in life, the interaction of gene and environment is critical to the development of later disease. Additionally, only a small proportion of the variation in adult traits such as bone mineral density has been explained by specific genes in genome-wide association studies, suggesting that gene-environment interaction may explain a much larger part of the inheritance of disease risk than previously thought. It is therefore critically important to evaluate the environmental factors which may predispose to diseases such as osteorthritis, osteoporosis, and rheumatoid arthritis both at the individual and at the population level. In this chapter we describe the environmental contributors, across the whole life course, to osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis, as exemplar conditions. We consider factors such as age, gender, nutrition (including the role of vitamin D), geography, occupation, and the clues that secular changes of disease pattern may yield. We describe the accumulating evidence that conditions such as osteoporosis may be partly determined by the early interplay of environment and genotype, through aetiological mechanisms such as DNA methylation and other epigenetic phenomena. Such studies, and those examining the role of environmental influences across other stages of the life course, suggest that these issues should be addressed at all ages, starting from before conception, in order to optimally reduce the burden of musculoskeletal disorders in future generations.

Informal social control of sex offenders

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly R. Kras
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Support Function ◽  
Informal Social Control ◽  
Informal Controls ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Insight Into

This essay discusses the role of informal social control for sex offenders who are reentering the community after imprisonment. The essay begins by reviewing the reintegration of sex offenders into communities, noting that they might reintegrate differently than other offenders. Considering how informal social control occurs across the life course for sex offenders may offer insight into specific mechanisms of desistance. The essay discusses the role in reentry of relationships, such as family, friends, and intimate partners, as well as the support function of social networks and community-oriented informal controls, such as school, employment, and other forms of civic engagement. The role of the community for sex offenders is tenuous, considering the legal and social policies that govern their movement and involvement in certain activities. The emerging role of the therapeutic community and the treatment group is examined. Controversies in the role of social support for sex offenders are also reviewed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document