Life transitions, social support and psychological well-being among the elderly in Taiwan -- A longitudinal study

This study examines the relationships between life transitions, social support and psychological well-being. A decline in health and financial strain were selected as two types of chronic stressors and loss of a spouse as an acute stressor. This study integrates previous literature and develops a unique predictive model involving seven components of social support---social network size, social network composition, frequency of social contact, satisfaction with social support, types of support, helping others, and proximity of support. Depression and life satisfaction were the two measures of psychological well-being. 3,585 elders who were interviewed up to five times over a 14-year period from the "Surveys of Health and Living Status of Elderly" (SHLSE) in Taiwan served as the subjects of this study. The random effects method was used to analyze the data.;The analytic results showed a larger network size, a broader social network, more social contact, greater satisfaction with social support, receiving instrumental, emotional and financial support, providing financial and short-term instrumental support, and living with married sons were all associated with lower depression and greater life satisfaction. Providing long-term instrumental support was related to greater depression and lower life satisfaction.;For elders who experienced declining health, receiving instrumental support from sons and daughters-in-law as well as emotional support from family members and friends was associated with better psychological well-being. For those with increasing financial strain, relying on the government for financial support was related to worse psychological well-being. For older widows and widowers, emotional support from children and friends was related to lower depression, but not significantly associated with life satisfaction. After controlling for other aspects of social support, the instrumental support from sons and daughters-in-law as well as the emotional support from spouses and sons exerted more robust buffering effects than other relationships across transitions. This study led to two major conclusions. First, the concept of social support can not be fully understood without taking a full range measurement into consideration. Second, rather than structure characteristics or tasks, it is the cultural expectation regarding informal relations that affects the patterns and psychological consequences of social support to the elderly in Taiwan.