Date of Award

1-1-2010

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

School of Social Welfare

Content Description

1 online resource (xii, 212 pages) : illustrations.

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Nancy Claiborne

Committee Members

Anne E. Fortune, Zai Liang

Keywords

depression, life transition, older, psychological well-being, social support, Taiwan, Older people, Quality of life

Subject Categories

Social Work

Abstract

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.

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