PATTERNS OF SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AMONG THE ELDERLY

On the premise that social relationships among elderly adults differ i n terms of the most significant, dominant figure, this study aimed to examine: (1) whether there were qualitative differences in supportive functions between family-dominant and friend-dominant affective relati onships, and (2) whether ''lone wolves'', who were deficient in human resources, had difficulties in maintaining their well-being. A total o f 148 Japanese, over the age of 65, both living in communities and in institutions were individually interviewed about their social relation ships using a self-report type method, the Picture Affective Relations hips test, and their well-being was assessed using Depression, Self-es teem, Life satisfaction, and Subjective health scales. Results showed that there were no differences in psychological well-being between fam ily-dominant and friend-dominant participants, but those who lacked af fective figures had lower scores in subjective well-being than did the ir family dominant and friend-dominant counterparts. The generalisatio n of these findings to other cultures is discussed.