Landline and mobile phone communication in social companionship networks of older adults: An empirical investigation in Slovenia

Andraž Petrovčič, Vasja Vehovar and Vesna Dolničar

Technology in Society, 2016, vol. 45, issue C, 91-102

Abstract: Although the number of older adults with access to landline and mobile phones has grown in recent years, little research exists that investigates how older adults use and potentially combine the two technologies for communication with the members of their social support networks. Therefore, this study explored how the composition of older adults' social companionship networks is related to the frequency of landline and mobile phone communication with their network members. In addition, the study examined the association between landline and mobile phone communication as well as their relationship with in-person communication in such networks. The survey data were gathered using an ego-centered social support approach in a nationwide representative sample of retired older adults in Slovenia. The results of multiple regression analyses revealed that the composition of a social companionship network better predicts the frequency of landline rather than mobile phone communication of older adults with their network members. The non-significant relationship between the frequency of landline and mobile phone communication suggested that the two technologies very likely have a different role in the maintenance of social companionship networks. The study also found a difference between the importance of control variables related to the socio-demographic characteristics of older adults for the frequency of landline and mobile phone communication. While age, education, and living alone significantly predicted the frequency of mobile communication with older adults' network members, significant predictors of their landline communication included gender and health impairments.

Keywords: Landline phones; Media choice; Mobile phones; Older adults; Social companionship; Social networks; Social support (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X16000154
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:teinso:v:45:y:2016:i:c:p:91-102

DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2016.02.007

Access Statistics for this article

Technology in Society is currently edited by Charla Griffy-Brown

More articles in Technology in Society from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().