The relationship between social support and well-being of rural elderly women.
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between social support and well-being of rural elderly women. A sample of 284 women aged 60 and older (M = 69.12, SD = 6.40) in a rural area of southern Taiwan completed all interview questions. The Chinese versions of the Personal Resource Questionnaire (PRQ) and the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) were used to measure social support and well-being. Content validity of the Chinese versions of the instruments was estimated as satisfactory. The alpha reliability coefficients were .86 for the entire PRQ-85 Part 2 and from .65 to .78 for the subscales. The alpha reliability coefficients were .85 and .65 for the PA subscale and NA subscale respectively. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to examine the relationship between social support and well-being. The findings demonstrated that not only the entire social support but also its five dimensions were positively correlated with positive affect (r ranged from .24 to .48, p < .01) and were inversely correlated with negative affect (r ranged from -.15 to -.21, p < .05 or .01). A substantive intervention design may help verify the effectiveness of social support on elderly women's positive affect and negative affect. Using social support as a strategy to promote these women's well-being, therefore, should be the subject of future study.
Wang
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College of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University, No. 100, Shih-Chuan 1st Rd., Kaohsiung (807), Taiwan.
Liu
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YY
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012423:Rural Health; D012944:Social Support