Family and Social Networks Flashcards
What is a family?
‘Married or cohabiting couple on their own or with their never married children who have no children of their own or lone parents’
What is a family?
‘Married or cohabiting couple on their own or with their never married children who have no children of their own or lone parents’
What is a Social network? What does it show/not show?
map of relationships among people indicating ways in which they are connected
Shows:
- Size
- Frequency of contact
- Density
Does not show:
- Quality (doesn’t show quality of relationships)
What is the Demographic Transition Theory?
Generalised description of changing pattern of mortality, fertility rates and population changes as societies move from one demographic regime to another. There are 4 stages which are classified by differential mortality rates, birth rates and population balances at different age groups
Stage 1: - BR + DR high
Stage 2: - BR high + DR declines (increased food supply, sanitation)
Stage 3: - BR declines (contraception + maternal education) + DR declines (infantile mortality reduces)
Stage 4: - BR falls below replacement levels + DR declines
What two types of demographic transition are there?
1) First demographic transition: Stage 1 —> Stage 4 ≈ slower BR + slower DR + demographic shift to ageing society + immigration requirement
2) Second demographic transition: i) ∆ in marriage ii) ∆ fertility
What is is migration? What is its relevance to demographics?
Movement of people from one region to another
1) Population decline if not complemented by new immigration
- Migration streams not entirely stem ageing, as migrants also age and lower their own futility with time in destination countries
2) Internal migration patterns
- Emigration : young + women
- High qualifications/professional status more mobile ≈ escalator regions like London or Edinburgh
- Life course migrations - student, old age health, lifestyle/QOL
What are the outcomes of new technologies?
- Cheap air travel - Cheap telecommunications - Access to internet - Improved healthcare - Improved knowledge
What is social support?
Resources provided by other persons and information making a person to believe they are cared for and loved, which is valued and belongs to a social network of communication and mutual obligation’
What model of suicide can be related to social support?
Durkheim (1897): community levels of suicide - identified patterns in suicide within a population and constructed four areas of suicide based on regulation + integration (fatalistic suicide + anomic suicide cf altruistic and egoistic suicide)
Four areas of suicide with regulation vs integration:
- Fatalistic suicide (overregulation)
- Anomic suicide (not enough regulation)
- Egoistic suicide (not enough integration)
- Altruistic suicide (too much integration)
What are the categories of the potential mechanisms for improved social support and positive impacts on health?
1) Direct effects: directly help healthy behaviour
2) Buffer effects: moderates impact of negative life events on health; ‘vulnerability’ factors
3) Health selection: poor health is a barrier to maintaining relationships - Associations may go the other way around whereby poor health is the causative factor
What are the three medical systems (Kleinman)?
1) Professional sector: organised healing professions
2) Folk sector: non-professional sector
3) Popular sector: lay, non-professional, non-specialist, popular culture arena which illness is first defined and healthcare activities initiated ≈ 70-90% of healthcare occurs in this region
What is the illness iceberg?
Patients only see the GP with PC as the ‘tip of the iceberg’ whereas symptoms may be absent (asymptomatic), symptoms may not lead to seeing professional healthcare due to seeing folk sector or popular sector (self-medication or seeing alternative practitioners)
What are therapy management networks?
Groups of individuals involved in case of a sick person; connections to all three healthcare sectors
- Advice and treatment pass along links in the network (friends + family; folk healers; physicians)
- People make choices between types of healers and between diagnosis and advice that make sense to them (treatment necessity + concerns) and those that do not ≈ non-compliance or ∆ to another part of therapeutic network
What is the response to emergencies with regards to informal care and support?
Emergency ≈ distance overcome by urgency ≈ utilise transport to effect the time-space convergence ≈ presence
What are longitudinal patterns of social support?
Cyclical character to social support where individuals receive most support following acute stressor but support erodes over course of chronic stressor
i) Marshalling support easier when pre-existing relationship already involved emotional and practical support e.g. childcare, transport, domestic work
ii) Financial and symbolic support: easy to access from people/organisation to whom less close e.g. organising a whip-round from work colleagues
