Unravelling the complexity of the relationship between social support sources and loneliness: A mixed-methods study with older adults.

Loneliness is an increasingly significant social and public health issue in contemporary societies. The available evidence suggests that social support is one of the key psychosocial processes for the reduction and prevention of loneliness. This study investigated the role played by sources of social support in the experience of social and emotional loneliness, identifying seven sources of support split between family (spouse/partner, children, grandchildren, siblings) and non-family (friends, neighbours).

Aging and Family Relationships among Aymara, Mapuche and Non-Indigenous People: Exploring How Social Support, Family Functioning, and Self-Perceived Health Are Related to Quality of Life.

Family relationships play a central role in wellbeing among older adults in Chile. Based on the theory of social production functions, this study examined the relationship between perceived social support from children, partners and relatives, family functioning, self-perceived health and quality of life (QoL) among Chilean older adults. The study used a multi-ethnic sample of Chilean older adults living in rural areas in the regions of Arica and Parinacota (north) and Araucanía (south).

Ageing in Context: An Ecological Model to Understand Social Participation Among Indigenous Adults in Chile.

The social participation of older adults occupies a central position in international discourse regarding ageing, the ecological model makes it possible to examine and assess the different factors that influence the understanding of what encourages social participation by older adults. This study used the ecological model to analyse how personal, community and environmental factors are related to satisfaction with social participation among Chilean older adults, a majority of whom are indigenous, living in rural areas ( = 800). The results confirmed that satisfaction with social participation was related to personal factors (feelings of depression, functioning into basic activities of daily living (ADL) and autonomy), community factors (perceived social support from social group) and environmental factors (accessibility of physical setting within the village).