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Reciprocity: A Predictor of Mental Health and Continuity in Elderly People's Relationships? A Review

Many studies have demonstrated that social relationships confer mental health benefits. This paper aims to identify whether and how reciprocity in social relationships predicts or is associated with mental health benefits as well as with continuity in elderly people's social relationships. The...

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Autor principal: Fyrand, Live
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2943076/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20871667
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2010/340161
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author Fyrand, Live
author_facet Fyrand, Live
author_sort Fyrand, Live
collection PubMed
description Many studies have demonstrated that social relationships confer mental health benefits. This paper aims to identify whether and how reciprocity in social relationships predicts or is associated with mental health benefits as well as with continuity in elderly people's social relationships. The studies reviewed in this paper show that, among elders, being in a balanced or underbenefited reciprocal position predicts better mental health and life quality than being in an overbenefited position. Throughout the course of life, reciprocity evens out present and earlier reciprocal imbalances, securing continuity in close relationships—particularly between spouses and between elderly parents and adult children. In friendships, securing continuity seems to be based on the maintenance of independence based on balanced reciprocal relations, making these relationships more vulnerable. Due to the problems of conceptualization and measurement in the reviewed studies, one should be cautious in stating a final conclusion that the reciprocity norm has a universal positive effect on mental health and continuity in elderly people's relationships.
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spelling pubmed-29430762010-09-24 Reciprocity: A Predictor of Mental Health and Continuity in Elderly People's Relationships? A Review Fyrand, Live Curr Gerontol Geriatr Res Review Article Many studies have demonstrated that social relationships confer mental health benefits. This paper aims to identify whether and how reciprocity in social relationships predicts or is associated with mental health benefits as well as with continuity in elderly people's social relationships. The studies reviewed in this paper show that, among elders, being in a balanced or underbenefited reciprocal position predicts better mental health and life quality than being in an overbenefited position. Throughout the course of life, reciprocity evens out present and earlier reciprocal imbalances, securing continuity in close relationships—particularly between spouses and between elderly parents and adult children. In friendships, securing continuity seems to be based on the maintenance of independence based on balanced reciprocal relations, making these relationships more vulnerable. Due to the problems of conceptualization and measurement in the reviewed studies, one should be cautious in stating a final conclusion that the reciprocity norm has a universal positive effect on mental health and continuity in elderly people's relationships. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2010 2010-09-14 /pmc/articles/PMC2943076/ /pubmed/20871667 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2010/340161 Text en Copyright © 2010 Live Fyrand. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Article
Fyrand, Live
Reciprocity: A Predictor of Mental Health and Continuity in Elderly People's Relationships? A Review
title Reciprocity: A Predictor of Mental Health and Continuity in Elderly People's Relationships? A Review
title_full Reciprocity: A Predictor of Mental Health and Continuity in Elderly People's Relationships? A Review
title_fullStr Reciprocity: A Predictor of Mental Health and Continuity in Elderly People's Relationships? A Review
title_full_unstemmed Reciprocity: A Predictor of Mental Health and Continuity in Elderly People's Relationships? A Review
title_short Reciprocity: A Predictor of Mental Health and Continuity in Elderly People's Relationships? A Review
title_sort reciprocity: a predictor of mental health and continuity in elderly people's relationships? a review
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2943076/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20871667
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2010/340161
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