| Chapter 2: | Theory |
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Although several studies are available on social support among older Taiwanese, very few explicitly use network analysis.8 Of particular note is a study of older adults in Wuhan, China.9 Because similar social-support and psychosocial variables were used, there will be several opportunities to refer to this work in our analysis.
Life Satisfaction and Identity Variables
The psychosocial variables are the final element in this model and bring the analysis to subjective meanings held by individuals. These personal attributes play an important role in the analysis; both the network types and the content of the exchanges are treated in most cases as independent variables which determine personal attributes as represented by two types of constructs: life satisfaction and identity measures.
Life Satisfaction
This includes an overall measure of life satisfaction, as well as more specific measures of satisfaction with various aspects of one’s life (family, finances, work, etc.). The overall measure is among the most frequently used in aging studies: the life satisfaction scale developed by Neugarten, Havighurst, and Tobin (1961), from which we have included 15 of the original 20 items (see Appendix B; see also page 37 for discussion of the items excluded from the analysis). This scale can be conceptualized as making a comparison between one’s actual and preferred conditions—a cognitive task that is considered less affected by immediate experiences and, thus, stable over time. The usefulness of the life satisfaction measure is best captured by Linda George: