| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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Gerontologists invariably embrace the truism that aging is multidimensional and multicausal, yet any one study can only deal with a limited array of this complexity. We focus on the circumstances of older adults that impact well-being as mediated by culture (Fry, 2000). We do this by comparing American—specifically rural Oregon—and Taiwanese samples by testing a number of hypotheses, many of which have been of fundamental importance in the gerontological literature, but some of which are being proposed here for the first time.
We are dealing here with large and complex cultures with far too much diversity for which to account within the context of a single investigation. Nevertheless, we have available reasonably representative samples reflecting geographically and culturally distinct older populations. While we hope to account for cultural differences between the two—and in our view, theoretically more important—we go beyond these differences and search for structural convergence that hint at more universal trends due to the population changes affecting all societies. The conceptual vehicle for seeking this convergence is the differing configurations of social network in which individuals are embedded.
Social network, a term often used synonymously with egocentric or personal network, has become increasingly more important in a variety of studies over the past several decades. This is particularly relevant to Taiwan, where Greenhalgh (1988) has shown that microlevel frames, such as social networks and families, are essential to understanding the dynamics of development on the island over the past 50 years. Since these networks are concerned with more intimate relationships—the ones from which social support is most likely to derive—they have immense consequences for the lifestyle and well-being of the individual, most especially for older adults. Yet, as pointed out by Fischer (1982), this support is a double-edged sword, for there is often a steep price paid for support or grave disappointment when expectations of support remain unfulfilled.