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脆弱性，但老年人关于社会脆弱性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脆弱经历，以及 (b) 探讨这两个群体在这些经历上的差异。我们对 38 位荷兰农村社区居住和辅助生活的老年人进行的访谈进行了主题分析。我们根据三个总体主题构建我们的研究结果，这些主题突出了参与者社会脆弱经历的不同方面：(a) 提供资源和活动以满足社会需求，(b) 已经失去的资源和活动，以及 (c) 他们如何随着时间的推移管理和适应资源和活动的变化。孤独感仅在居住在社区的参与者中报告，而在辅助生活参与者中体验最强烈的是丧失流动性和参与（社交）活动。这些发现挑战了广泛的政策和实践原地老化。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养老更可取，因为这样做可以防止社交脆弱。其关键原因在于辅助生活中的生活可能会带来新的社会资源和活动，这可能有助于满足老年人的社会需求。