IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/resjnl/v15y2025i2p10.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Older Adults’ Friends and Ethnicity

Author

Listed:
  • Hyunsook Kang

Abstract

This study examines the relationships among friends and ethnicity of older adults. Friends includes friend numbers and their quality of relationships with friends of older adults in the current study. Data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) survey (Waite et al., 2020) were used. The NSHAP study sampled persons 57-85 years of age (n=3005). The respondents completed a telephone survey in which they reported their background information (e.g., income, gender, race, age, health, retirement status, and marital status) and social network characteristics. It was hypothesized that older adults’ ethnicity differentially influenced family relations. In comparison to Anglo older adults, African and Hispanic older adults have weaker (smaller number and less cohesive) family culture. In order to identify the associations between ethnicity and friend relations, multiple regression analysis was used. Results revealed that African American and Hispanic older adults reported larger numbers of close friends, higher quality of friend in general, and higher frequency of contact with them compared to Anglo older adults. The current study’s findings build on a convoy model to account for how older adults’ ethnicity is differentially associated with their quality and size in friend relationship for future research is to examine more diverse in friend and ethnicity variables which explain the dynamic relationships between older adults’ demographic factors and friend network.

Suggested Citation

  • Hyunsook Kang, 2025. "Older Adults’ Friends and Ethnicity," Review of European Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 15(2), pages 1-10, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:ibn:resjnl:v:15:y:2025:i:2:p:10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/res/article/download/0/0/48834/52622
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/res/article/view/0/48834
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carin Lennartsson & Merril Silverstein, 2001. "Does Engagement With Life Enhance Survival of Elderly People in Sweden? The Role of Social and Leisure Activities," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 56(6), pages 335-342.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kimiko Tomioka & Norio Kurumatani & Keigo Saeki, 2018. "The differential effects of type and frequency of social participation on IADL declines of older people," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-17, November.
    2. Dury, Sarah & Stas, Lara & Switsers, Lise & Duppen, Daan & Domènech-Abella, Joan & Dierckx, Eva & Donder, Liesbeth De, 2021. "Gender-related differences in the relationship between social and activity participation and health and subjective well-being in later life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    3. Linghan Zhang & Junyi Zhang, 2018. "Impacts of Leisure and Tourism on the Elderly’s Quality of Life in Intimacy: A Comparative Study in Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-17, December.
    4. Linda Kridahl, 2014. "Retirement and leisure: a longitudinal study using Swedish data," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 12(1), pages 141-168.
    5. Alejandro Canedo-García & Jesús-Nicasio García-Sánchez, 2022. "Exploring the Instrumental and Emotional Supports for Sustainability and Social Participation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Park, HyunJee & Kim, Jinho, 2024. "Perceived social position, active engagement with life, and depressive symptoms among older adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 345(C).
    7. Shor, Eran & Roelfs, David J., 2015. "Social contact frequency and all-cause mortality: A meta-analysis and meta-regression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 76-86.
    8. Henrike Galenkamp & Cristina Gagliardi & Andrea Principi & Stanislawa Golinowska & Amilcar Moreira & Andrea E. Schmidt & Juliane Winkelmann & Agnieszka Sowa & Suzan Pas & Dorly J. H. Deeg, 2016. "Predictors of social leisure activities in older Europeans with and without multimorbidity," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 129-143, June.
    9. Ioana Ramia & Malina Voicu, 2022. "Life Satisfaction and Happiness Among Older Europeans: The Role of Active Ageing," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 667-687, April.
    10. Jin Wu & Xi Li & Bo Gao & Xinwei Su, 2020. "The Effects of Serious Leisure Involvement on Subjective Well-Being and Successful Aging: A Case Study of Young-Old Participants in Chinese Seniors’ Universities," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(1), pages 21582440209, March.
    11. Utomo, Ariane & Mcdonald, Peter & Utomo, Iwu & Cahyadi, Nur & Sparrow, Robert, 2019. "Social engagement and the elderly in rural Indonesia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 22-31.
    12. Elena del Barrio & Sandra Pinzón & Sara Marsillas & Francisco Garrido, 2021. "Physical Environment vs. Social Environment: What Factors of Age-Friendliness Predict Subjective Well-Being in Men and Women?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-19, January.
    13. He, Sylvia Y. & Thøgersen, John & Cheung, Yannie H.Y. & Yu, Alesia H.Y., 2020. "Ageing in a transit-oriented city: Satisfaction with transport, social inclusion and wellbeing," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 85-94.
    14. Huiying Liu & Wei Qun Lou, 2016. "Patterns of productive activity engagement among older adults in urban China," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 361-372, December.
    15. Hui-Chuan Hsu & Tsuann Kuo & Ju-Ping Lin & Wei-Chung Hsu & Chia-Wen Yu & Yen-Cheng Chen & Wan-Zhen Xie & Wei-Chiang Hsu & Ya-Lan Hsu & Mu-Ting Yu, 2018. "A Cross-Disciplinary Successful Aging Intervention and Evaluation: Comparison of Person-to-Person and Digital-Assisted Approaches," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-19, May.
    16. Xinfeng Cheng & Xiaomin Li & Huijun Liu & Theodore D. Cosco & Wenjie Duan, 2021. "Widowhood and the Subjective Well-Being of Older People in China: the Mediating Effects of Lifestyle," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(2), pages 875-890, April.
    17. Petra Klumb, 2004. "Benefits from Productive and Consumptive Activities: Results from the Berlin Aging Study," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 67(1), pages 107-127, June.
    18. Hyejin Yoon & Won Seok Lee & Kyoung-Bae Kim & Joonho Moon, 2020. "Effects of Leisure Participation on Life Satisfaction in Older Korean Adults: A Panel Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-9, June.
    19. Petra L. Klumb & Heiner Maier, 2002. "Daily activities and survival at older ages," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2002-041, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:resjnl:v:15:y:2025:i:2:p:10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.