Focus: The Aging Brain: Social capital,health, and elderly driver status |
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Authors: | Stephen T. Isbel Helen L. Berry |
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Affiliation: | aOccupational Therapy, Faculty of Health, University of Canberra, Australia;bFaculty of Health, University of Canberra, Australia, and ANU Climate Change Institute, The Australian National University |
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Abstract: | Driving a car enables many people to engage in meaningful activities that, in turn, help develop and maintain personal social capital. Social capital, a combination of community participation and social cohesion, is important in maintaining well-being. This paper argues that social capital can provide a framework for investigating the general role of transportation and driving a car specifically to access activities that contribute to connectedness and well-being among older people. This paper proposes theoretically plausible and empirically testable hypotheses about the relationship between driver status, social capital, and well-being. A longitudinal study may provide a new way of understanding, and thus of addressing, the well-being challenges that occur when older people experience restrictions to, or loss of, their driver’s license. |
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Keywords: | Social capital health elderly driving well-being |
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