Abstract:

This study mainly explored significant others’ social support of the elderly from twofold dimensions, namely quantity versus quality of the support, and actual versus ideal support. And this study also aimed at examining the relationship between social support and the elderly attitudes toward aging. There were 441 old adults participated in this investigation. Significant Others Scale (SOS) and Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire (AAQ) were applied to assess social support and the attitudes to aging perceived by the participants. The results showed that: (1) the distribution of support sources was in accord with the hierarchical compensation model. (2) Gender, age and educational level showed significant effects on social support perceived by older adults. (3) If the elderly perceived higher quality of social supports from his/her significant others, he/she would report more positive attitudes toward aging.

Key words: social support, attitudes toward aging, significant others, older adult

摘要：

采用重要他人和老化态度问卷测查了441名老年人的社会支持和老化态度情况，并且从支持的数量和质量角度以及实际支持和期望支持的角度细致考察了社会支持与老化态度的关系。结果表明：（1）老年人的支持来源符合社会支持层级模式；（2）性别、年龄及受教育水平对老年人社会支持有显著影响；（3）老年人从重要他人那里获得的实际社会支持的质量越高，老化态度越积极。

关键词: 社会支持, 老化态度, 重要他人, 老年人