Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Social Capital: A View from the Field

2008; IOS Press; Volume: 29; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3233/jvr-2008-00439

1878-6316

Al Condeluci, Melva Gooden Ledbetter, Dori Ortman, Jeff Fromknecht, Megan DeFries,

Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving

Recently, a colleague lost his mother after a lengthy illness. She was 89 years old and had lived a good and full life. The passing of a parent, especially a mother, is a very difficult loss. In the month or so before she died, and again after her passing, our colleague was amazed by the outpouring of support and sympathy from family, friends and colleagues. There were the regular questions on her health and how his family was holding up during her illness. After her passing, the responses were amazing. Food, cards, calls and visits poured out, and the family was surrounded by support and love. It was incredibly helpful in this difficult time. This kind of support during adversity or tragedy is not unique to our colleague; anyone reading these words has probably had similar experiences. This is but one example of the power and potency of our friendship networks and support systems. The support offered by this array of friends, family and acquaintances is referred to in the social sciences as social capital. Over the past 40 years, sociologists have been studying the impact of social capital on our lives. We now scientifically know that our friendship networks do amaz-