ABSTRACT
There is an abundance of research demonstrating the importance of family members and kinship networks as buffers—against environmental stressors that impinge upon and endanger the lives and psychological wellbeing of family members. Frequent visits—from offspring, other relatives, and aged friends, in their new places of residence—were also significantly related to positive attitudes of the elderly toward their new homes. Just as frequent visits from primary group members helped to sustain their positive self-imagery, sense of life satisfaction, and generally high levels of morale, such visits improved the perspectives of these black elderly persons on their new residential settings. Even more significant was the relationship between self-perceived health and visits from old Griot House friends who moved to the same place of residence. The significance, for mental health, of opportunities to get out is made most explicit in its relationship to changes in sense of anomia, loneliness and life dissatisfaction, and self-image.
