SummaryResults of our previous research indicated that older adults believe that there's a lack of sufficient social support from informal sources available to them in difficult situations they face. In follow-up research, we found that older adults defined limitation in their self-sufficiency in daily activities to be the most significant difficult situation for them. This paper disseminates the results of the research seeking to answer the research question: According to older adults, can family be a source of social support in a difficult situation of limitation of self-sufficiency in daily activities? Social support theory is the used theoretical basis. Using the method of qualitative content analysis we analysed 23 semi-structured interviews with older adults.FindingsWe found that if two conditions, that is, geographic proximity to individual family members and the quality of relationships with family members, are ensured, family can function as one of the informal sources of social support according to older adults. In case that older adults prefer a formal source of social support, they consider their family as a source of social support only in an extreme situation of limited self-sufficiency.ApplicationsThis study provides social workers with a better understanding of the difficult situations of older adults and what kind of social support older adults prefer. This study also provides an argumentation about the importance of gerontological social work.

中文翻译：

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家庭作为老年人社会支持的来源：对老年学社会工作的影响

摘要我们之前的研究结果表明，老年人认为，在面临困难的情况下，他们缺乏来自非正式来源的足够的社会支持。在后续研究中，我们发现老年人将日常活动自给自足的限制定义为他们面临的最严重的困难。本文传播的研究结果旨在回答以下研究问题：对于老年人来说，在日常活动自给自足受到限制的困难情况下，家庭可以成为社会支持的来源吗？社会支持理论是所采用的理论基础。采用定性内容分析的方法，我们分析了 23 名老年人的半结构化访谈。结果我们发现，如果保证了两个条件，即与家庭成员的地理位置接近和与家庭成员的关系质量，家庭就可以发挥作用老年人获得社会支持的非正式来源之一。如果老年人更喜欢正式的社会支持来源，他们只有在自给自足的极端情况下才将家庭视为社会支持的来源。应用本研究使社会工作者更好地了解老年人的困难处境以及老年人喜欢什么样的社会支持。这项研究还论证了老年社会工作的重要性。