Social Networks and Quality of Life Among Older Adults: The Moderating Role of Immigrant Status

Background: Current demographic trends document tremendous growth in older adult populations across the globe. Older immigrants, specifically, have shown substantial increase in recent years, yet this double minority population has received less attention in the literature. With ample research indicating social networks play a crucial role in improving quality of life, the benefits of social networks may be of particular importance for minority populations such as older immigrants. Methods: In the present study we investigated the role of social networks in shaping the quality of life of older immigrants and non-immigrants using data from the fourth wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (n=31,931). We examined multiple characteristics of personal social networks, namely structure, interaction, and quality. We expected the positive association between the aforementioned social network features and older adults' quality of life to be stronger among older immigrants compared to older non-immigrants. Results: Hierarchical ordinary least square regressions determined that as respondents felt more emotionally close to their network members their perceived quality of life increased. As expected, this trend was particularly salient for older immigrants. Conclusions: We discuss the implications of these findings and their importance in narrowing the gap between immigrants and natives' social networks to promote better quality of life among older adults.