Table 1.

Theoretical threads and contributions to convoy of care model by perspective.

Convoy model of social relations (Antonucci, 1985; Antonucci et al., 2009; Kahn & Antonucci, 1980)	Life course perspective (Elder, 1998; Elder & Clipp, 1988)	Feminist gerontology and socialist feminist thought (Calasanti, 2009; Calasanti & Slevin, 2001; Ward-Griffin & Marshall, 2003; Young, 1990)	Social ecological perspective (Moos, 1979)	Symbolic interactionist perspective (Blumer, 1969; Finch, 1989; Finch & Mason, 1993, see also Strauss et al., 1963)
Takes an evolutionary or longitudinal view of social (informal) support.	Aging is a lifelong process. Life course studies require longitudinal approaches.	Identifies an interlocking structure of social hierarchies, intersecting inequalities, and power relations.	Assumes that individuals cannot be divorced from their environments and surrounding contexts, including others around them and must be studied together.	Emphasizes meaning, interpretation, and lived experience. Negotiation is a key feature of social, organizational and family life, and caregiving, and requires a longer view.
Individuals are embedded in convoys (i.e., collection of close social relationships).	Focuses on “linked lives” (i.e., that lives are lived interdependently).	Relations of inequality are largely based on gender, race, ethnicity, age, health, sexuality, and class-based positions. They arise through social interaction and reflect structural arrangements.	Aims to understand the experience of the environment from the individual's perspective	Individuals negotiate their “own course of action” yet, outcomes are not open-ended and often “tightly constrained” (Finch & Mason, 1993:60).
Convoy members give, receive, and exchange support. Convoys generally serve a protective function and provide support in the form of: aide, emotional support, and affirmation.	Life course changes are conceptualized as transitions (change in state) and turning points (change in direction) and often affect more than the individual and those surrounding them.	Oppressed groups experience marginalization, lack of authority, and powerlessness.	Emphasis is placed on adjustment and adaptation.	Care negotiations are an outcome of the interplay between structure and agency. “Legitimate excuses” (Finch, 1989) exist; certain situations are socially acceptable reasons for not upholding what normally would be perceived as a family responsibility and often vary by gender.
Convoy properties are measured by: structure, function, and adequacy.	Life course trajectories are influenced by: human agency that varies in constraints andoptions, the importance of location in time and place, and the timing of life events.	Demonstrates paid and unpaid caregiving as devalued and the ideology of familism as influencing the pervasive belief that care is the domain of families and women. In studying care, emphasize is placed on “relational autonomy” to show interdependence between care recipients and their paid and unpaid caregivers (Parks, 2003:85–86).	Implies the need to study context in-depth and at multiple levels. In understanding health behaviors and outcomes, for example, the perspective posits that processes operate at multiple, intersecting levels ofsocial life (e.g., society, community, organizational, networks and relationships, and individual).
Convoys are influenced by personal and situational characteristics.	These aforementioned factors join to create different life course trajectories.
Convoys influence individuals’ health and well-being.				Social identities and positions are at stake in negotiations; issues of power and control are intertwined with negotiation and the balance of dependence and interdependence (Finch & Mason, 1993:58).