社会、经济、文化等方面的变革也使老年人的社会参与受到剧烈冲击,社会关系日益 萎缩。如何使我国迅速扩张的老年人口有机会扩展人际交往已经成为当前学界和国家政策 的重要课题。能提供丰富社交机会的各种形式的网络社区也许可以为解决这一问题提供思 路。本文主要是利用社会调查的研究方法,对目前中国活跃度最高的老年社区网站“老小 孩”进行考察。本文用定量统计手段得出网络社区的参与度对老年人的人际网络、社会认 同感、以及获取社会支持等方面有积极作用。本文研究成果使我们对老年人的网络社区使 用和效果有更清晰的认识,也为网络开发者和政策决策者提供可借鉴的知识。

Chinese older adults become more socially isolated because of the dramatic changes in today’s China. This paper attempts to examine whether the emerging online communities have the potential in partially solving this problem. In more detail, the present study examined whether online community involvement was associated with the network size, perceived social support, and feelings of social connectedness among Chinese older participants. The study investigated one of the most active senior-oriented online communities in China, OldKids. com, and collected 196 valid responses through an online survey posted on their website. The findings showed that OldKids online community involvement played a significantly positive role in the social life of Chinese elderly. This paper also provides guidance for future interventions to help older adults lead a healthy social life using new communication technologies.