Social support and well-being of older adults in Eastern Asia: a systematic review

Abstract

This chapter aimed to critically review empirical studies on social support and wellbeing among older adults in five Eastern Asian countries/communities—The People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Japan, and South Korea—with a focus on the conceptualization and construct of social support and its relationships with physical and psychological well-being. The roles played by gender and the Asian cultural context were also examined. A systematic review of 46 studies identified the following themes: 1) Social support was recognized as a multi-dimensional construct. However, operational definitions of social support varied, mainly because many studies used secondary data. 2) The findings were inconclusive on the role of the three dimensions of social support on physical and psychological well-being of older adults in Eastern Asia. 3) The role of gender in the relationship between social support and well-being of older adults was not consistent. 4) Cultural specific conceptualization of social support was identified in some of the studies, which showed promise in reflecting the intergenerational family context in Asia. 5) Longitudinal studies showed promise in testing alternative hypotheses on the relationship between social support and well-being of older adults. This is the first attempt to critically review Eastern Asian literature related to social support and well-being of older adults. A large proportion of the studies were atheoretical, in which cultural contexts and theories on social support and well-being did not play significant roles in guiding the operationalization of social support. The themes identified should be considered by future researchers to advance cultural-specific knowledge building in Asian and cross-cultural literature on social support and physical and psychological well-being of older adults.