Dissertation
Caregiving and Personal Networks: Implications for Health and Well-being in Later Life
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2019
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/112024
Abstract
This dissertation consists of three empirical studies on informal caregiving and personal networks in later life and the implications for caregivers’ health and well-being. These studies employ data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, a nationally representative panel study of older Americans collected in 2005-6 and 2010-11. The first study (chapter 2) examines network turnover, the combination of added and lost ties within a personal network, occurring during the different stages of caregiving. Assessing network turnover across the stages of caregiving is important because long-term network instability may lead to poor health outcomes and limited access to social resources whereas adaptive network changes tend to elicit more positive outcomes. The second study (chapter 3) addresses caregiver’s social capital potential from a network perspective. By drawing attention to the benefits and limitations of certain network structures, I assess whether older adults who transition into informal caregiving maintain different network structures than their non-caregiving counterparts. Finally, the third study (chapter 4) investigates how personal network characteristics moderate the relationship between informal caregiving and cognitive functioning in later life. In this chapter, I note how long-term caregivers’ ability to perform on a global cognition test is more greatly influenced by the density and family composition of their personal networks than non-caregivers. Collectively, these studies further our understanding of caregiving during older adulthood as well as document the dynamic link between social connectedness and health in later life.
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Details
- Title
- Caregiving and Personal Networks: Implications for Health and Well-being in Later Life
- Creators
- Adam R Roth
- Contributors
- Monica K Johnson (Advisor)Justin T Denney (Committee Member)Thomas Rotolo (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Sociology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 118
- Identifiers
- 99900581616101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation