Gender and Social Network Support in Later Life - Essay Example

?GENDER AND SOCIAL NETWORK SUPPORT IN LATER LIFE By Location Gender and social network support in later life The absence of good social ties with other people has been discovered to be an important risk factor in psychological wellbeing, sickness and even death. There is a notable difference in behavior between women and men in social networks. These differences are very critical in support in later ages. This is contributed to by the fact that human interactions have a very big effect on how human beings behave in their later life. This paper aims at critically discussing gender and social network support in later life. Studies have proved that women form about 58% of individuals who have attained the age of 65 years and above. This percentage increases to 68% when the same studies were carried out amongst individual with the age of 85 years and above. The marital status has an impact on the economic and emotional situations of elderly people. However, women in old age are more affected emotionally by their marital status than men. This might lead to an increase in the need for social networks such as the internet to maintain the emotional connection. Someone’s well being in old age might also be affected by their educational standards (Walker 2000, P. 143). Higher educational attainment might lead to higher social confidence that might influence how older people interact with people in social networks. There are researches that suggest that the social support exchange patterns differ with gender especially in older age. Social emotional supports such as vocal support, advice, and encouragement are very common within the social network settings. The researchers also prove that women are more likely to seek this kind of emotional support as compared to men (Formosa & Higgs 2013, P. 301). This even explains the big difference between elderly men and women who are fond of social networks. Married people are likely to be less fond of social network because of reliance on the emotional support from their spouses and family. Gender is not the assent of people, they claim; however, a characteristic of societal circumstances that both initiate and reaffirm gender disparity. Susan in his literature argued that “getting elderly is less deeply injuring for a male. According to research, the UK social network has grown dramatically across all age groups, with older users been unusually enthusiastic over the past year about developing new networking tools. Social networking use among internet users aged 50 and older nearly doubled from 22% in 2009 to 42% in 2010, between 2009 and 2010 social networking like the internet grew among people aged 50-64 in 2009-2010 from 25% to 47%, during the same period, the use among those aged 65 and older grew from 13% to 26%. The use of status update services like Twitter has also grown among those aged 50 to 64 (Age UK). Women at old age have been discovered to make use of social support as compared to men. However, their rate of health complication diagnosis is also high. Despite the high rates, women were also found to have higher chances of surviving psychological health complications as compared to health (Backes, Lasch, & Reimann 2006, p. 34). This is attributed to their ability to effectively seek social support. This is because social support has the ability to foster the sense of purpose and meaning of life and also reduce the impacts of psychological stress. The gender difference is one of the main contributing factors for eating disorders, which has always influenced nutritional outcome of eating. The most common forms of eating disorders among elderly people are binge eating, nervosa, and bulimia nervosa. Eating disorders affect both male and female people and are closely related to their involvement in social network support. For men, poor participation in social networks might lead to a condition where they lack information on how to have proper eating habits and the effects of poor eating habits (Binstock, George, Cutler, Hendricks & Schulz 2006, P. 312). As for women, this might occur as a result of their good participation in social networks. Women might get the urge of attaining a shape that will be attractive to people. This might lead to a situation in which they adopt poor eating habit trying to attain a certain physical look. This is always facilitated by the need for women to always look younger. However, it is difficult to engage older men on health issues, in line with the notion of masculinity older men tends to tough out illness and are less likely than women to seek aid for situations such as depression. Similarly, evidence shows that older people that are socially active like volunteering, church activities, socializing with friends and family attending bingo, dancing and light exercise in the gym tends to have better cognitive functions; it also helps to ease depression, anxiety and enhance mental well being. Indeed, a comprehensive review of mental health promotion for older people shows that the most enhanced and positive mental well being comes from socializing and from participating in physical activities (Pillemer2000, P. 234). The ONS, 2011 states that in 2009, male life expectancy in the UK was 73.8 years and female life expectancy in the same year was 86.4 years. Abuse is a common occurrence even among older people. Abuse in later life usually comes in the form of traditional patterns such as intimate partner violence. In most cases, women are usually the victims of abuse in later life. This can be attributed to the physical strength superiority. Abuse might result to social negative effects such as social withdrawal and low self-esteem. Therefore, an abuse victim in later life might shy away from social networks or any other form of social support (Hillipson, Allen & Morgan 2003, P. 312). This is very dangerous to people in their later life since it can lead to health complications such as depression. This might even cause sudden death in later life. Studies show that men in their late life are likely to benefit from the care system than women. The reasons behind this are not yet clearly documented, but it is assumed to be a result of the high possibility of dependency among men in old age. In most cultures women are always seen as seen as caregivers, an aspect that tends to posses even in their old age. This even explains the high number of men in care centers, as opposed to the number of women. Men are seen as providers in most cultures, an aspect that they easily lose as soon as they lose their physical and mental ability to work (United Nations 2007, p. 25). When human beings begin to age, they tend to need more health care and support just like little children because their immunity falls and they have a larger tendency of falling sick easier than those in their mid-ages. Because of this, the old need supportive care to keep them going. They need to be vitalized with joy and peace which come by when they are healthy and not stressed up with issues in life (Findsen& Formosa 2011, P. 267). Because of this, our society has largely invested in different practices to try and help those who are in their old age to live in a healthy environment through several practices. Health promotion vastly involves making it possible for people to take control over their health through the activities they engage themselves in. It strives in developing public policies that ensure issues such as employment and income, housing and food security and good working conditions are looked into as prerequisites of health. Health promoters play a big role in later lives of mankind. They form a sustainable framework that ensures continuity in the promotion process (Hendricks 1995, P. 267). This is enabled through the creation of partnerships with key stakeholders who would ensure secure resource contribution from the partners (Backes, Lasch & Reimann2006, P. 187). It is also enabled through the creation of policy actions such as educating the public on the importance of taking care of the old, and cultivating a culture of community ownership of the health fight process. The promoters ensure that the public is basically aware of the presence of the oldest in the society, their health needs and informing the society of what it is that they have to do in taking care of the old that are around them. The social networks are very instrumental in this as the promoters are able to reach out to a majority of the public through this. However, the female folks being more sentimental and caring in nature tend to be involved more in these practices. They are also more involved in social networking and thus a larger target in the process. Health promotion has been improved vastly over the years. Health promoters have worked hard to improve their work in relation to the old. They have involved the old in their activities. Several milestones have been reached in the process. Just to mention a few, health promoters have been able to form the health promotion emblem in the first international conference on health promotion held in Ottawa, Canada. This emblem has been propagated widely through the social media. On the 9th of July 1984, health promoters met in Copenhagen and formulated principles on health promotion in which the issue of the health of the old was discussed and documented (Backes, Lasch, & Reimann 2006, p. 87). After a successful meeting and discussion in Thailand in august 2005, the Bangkok charter for health promotion in a globalized world was agreed to by the participants. Within the charter, the old were discussed as a critical issue and documented there within. These development charters have been spread widely through the social media to ensure the society is aware of the activities of the health promotion organizations. In developing plans for health promotion, the following could be engaged in the process. We could start by holding health talks with the community after which we could carry out research and in the process identify our target groups (Miller 2003, p. 101). After identifying our targets and other stakeholders, we would then write a plan by setting our goals, our objectives, strategies and activities that we will engage in. In our plan, we need to indicate our sources of revenue and then develop a timeline then budget for our actual promotion. We would ensure we do all this in specialization of the ageing factor that we researched on. We would then propagate our plan through social sites such as Facebook, twitter, Instagram, and others that we will study on. Bibliography Backes, G., Lasch, V., & Reimann, K. 2006. Gender, health and ageing European perspectives on life course, health issues and social challenges. Wiesbaden, VS Verlag fu?r Sozialwissenschaften. Binstock, R. H., George, L. K., Cutler, S. J., Hendricks, J., & Schulz, J. H 2006. Handbook of aging and the social sciences. Academic Press, an imprint of Elsevier, Amsterdam. http://www.credoreference.com/vol/545. Findsen, B., & Formosa, M 2011.Lifelong learning in later life a handbook on older adult learning. Sense Publishers, Rotterdam. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-651-9. Findsen, B., & Formosa, M. 2011. Lifelong Learning in Later Life: A Handbook on Older Adult Learning. Rotterdam, SensePublishers. Formosa, M., & Higgs, P 2013.Social class in later life: power, identity and lifestyle. Hendricks, J 1995. Health and health care utilization in later life. Baywood, Amityville, N.Y. Hillipson, C., Allen, G., & Morgan, D. H. J 2003.Social networks and social exclusion: sociological and policy perspectives. Ashgate, Aldershot, England. Miller, M. A. 2003. Nursing for Wellness in Older Adults. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Philadelphia USA. 5th Edition. Pillemer, K. A 2000.Social integration in the second half of life.Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. United Nations. 2007. Generations & Gender Programme: Concepts and Guidelines. New York, United Nations. Walker, A. J 2000.Families in later life: connections and transitions. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, Calif. Read More