Although social frailty has been described from a theoretical perspective, the lived experiences of older adults regarding social frailty are yet unknown. In this paper, we aim to (a) gain more in-depth insights into community-dwelling and assisted-living older adults’ experiences of social frailty and (b) explore the differences in these experiences between these two groups. We conduct a thematic analysis of 38 interviews with community-dwelling and assisted-living older adults in rural villages the Netherlands. We structure our findings along three overarching themes which highlight different aspects of the social frailty experiences of our participants: (a) present resources and activities to fulfil social needs, (b) resources and activities that have been lost, and (c) how they manage and adapt to changes in resources and activities over time. Loneliness is only reported among the community-dwelling participants, while the loss of mobility and participation in (social) activities is experienced most strongly by the assisted-living participants. These findings challenge the widespread policies and practices of ageing in place. We conclude that for some older adults, living in assisted arrangements is preferred over ageing in place, as doing so can prevent social frailty. The key reason for this is that life in assisted living is likely to bring about new social resources and activities, which may serve to fulfil the social needs of older adults.

尽管已经从理论角度描述了社会虚弱，但老年人关于社会虚弱的生活经历尚不清楚。在本文中，我们的目标是 (a) 更深入地了解社区居住和辅助生活的老年人的社会虚弱经历，以及 (b) 探索这两个群体之间这些经历的差异。我们对荷兰农村社区居住和生活辅助的老年人的 38 次访谈进行了专题分析。我们围绕三个总体主题来构建我们的发现，这些主题突出了参与者社会虚弱经历的不同方面：(a) 提供满足社会需求的资源和活动，(b) 已经丢失的资源和活动，以及 (c) 它们如何随着时间的推移，管理和适应资源和活动的变化。孤独感仅在社区居住参与者中报告，而生活辅助参与者最强烈地体验到行动不便和参与（社会）活动的感受。这些发现挑战了广泛的政策和实践老化到位。我们得出的结论是，对于一些老年人来说，生活在辅助安排中比就地老龄化更受欢迎，因为这样做可以防止社交脆弱。其关键原因在于，辅助生活可能会带来新的社会资源和活动，这些资源和活动可能有助于满足老年人的社会需求。