Composition and size of social support network in different life stages Composição e dimensão da rede social de apoio nas diferentes fases da vida Composición y tamaño de la red de apoyo social en distintas etapas vitales

SCOLNI, MIRTA; ARIAS, CLAUDIA J.; TAULER, TAMARA; SABATINI, BELÉN

Avances en Psicologia Latinoamericana

Fundacion para el Avance de la Psicologia

Lugar: Bogota; Año: 2020 vol. 38 p. 1 - 15

1794-4724

The social support network is of great importance throughout life, influencing comprehensive well-being. However, it changes over life and tends to decrease in size in old age. The aim of this work was to explore its composition and size in the different life stages: youth (20 to 30 years old), middle-age (40 to 50 years old), old age (60 to 70 years old), and advanced old age (80 to 90 years old). To do this, we introduced a crosscutting, non-experimental design. To an intentional non-probabilistic sample of 400 research subjects, residing in Mar del Plata (100 out of each age group), we applied a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Structured Interview of Sources of Social Support (Vaux & Harrison, 1985). The data were analyzed through R version 3.4.1. Distributions of percentages to compare the composition as well as the t-test, the ANOVA, and Bonferroni?s contrast were used to identify differences between groups. The results show that friendship, partners, and siblings are the most included bonds at all life stages. At less age, the size of the social support network is bigger than at other ages. The higher average of friends, co-workers/study, and community/health services relation belongs to young people, middle-aged, and old-aged adults, respectively. It is concluded that the network shows changes throughout life, which can affect well-being.