Four Social Support Profiles Emerge Among Migrant Older Adults, Study Finds

A BMC Public Health study using latent profile analysis examined social support among 359 migrant older adults and found four distinct patterns of two-way support. Only 14.0% showed balanced receiving and giving, while 15.6% fell into a deficient two-way support group characterized by low exchange overall. The largest share, 44.8%, reported a slight support-giving tendency—giving somewhat more than receiving—while 25.6% showed a mild support-receiving tendency. The research, published as an open-access article on 4 November 2026, used tools including the Brief 2-Way Social Support Scale and R3STEP multinomial logistic regression, linking profile membership to age, marital status, education, neuroticism, perceived burdensomeness, and thwarted belongingness.