Yura Lee: A Multifaceted Artist and Research on Aging and Social Well-being

Introduction

Yura Lee stands out as a versatile artist, equally proficient on both the violin and viola. Beyond her performance career, research explores various aspects of aging, health, and social well-being, including the impact of social network site (SNS) usage on older adults.

Yura Lee: A Distinguished Career

Yura Lee's musical journey is marked by numerous accolades and accomplishments. Currently, she serves as an associate professor of practice and the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld Endowed Chair in String Instruction at the USC Thornton School of Music.

Awards and Recognition

Lee's exceptional talent has been recognized throughout her career:

She was the sole first-prize winner across four categories at the 2013 ARD Competition in Germany.
At age 12, she was named Debut Artist of the Year by National Public Radio's "Performance Today."
She is a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Carnegie Hall nominated and represented her for its European Concert Hall Organization series.

Performance Experience

As a soloist, Lee has performed with leading orchestras worldwide, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Her chamber music engagements include appearances at prestigious festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, Verbier Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, Seattle Festival, Caramoor Festival, Kronberg Festival, and Aspen Music Festival. She is also a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Boston Chamber Music Society.

Education and Instruments

Lee's formal musical education includes studies at the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Salzburg Mozarteum, and Kronberg Academy. She plays a Giovanni Grancino violin, generously loaned to her through the Beares International Violin Society.

Research on Aging, Health, and Social Well-being

Yura Lee's research interests extend to the study of aging, health, and social well-being, with a particular focus on how social network sites (SNSs) impact older adults.

Social Network Site Usage and Social Well-being

Research has explored the relationship between SNS use and relation-based social well-being among older adults. This includes perceptions of support from children, other immediate family, and friends, as well as dimensions of loneliness such as feelings of isolation and connectedness.

SNS Adoption Among Older Adults

SNSs have become increasingly popular among middle-aged and older adults. The Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that 64% of internet-using adults aged 50-64 used SNSs in 2014. Among internet users aged 65 or older, the adoption rate of SNSs quadrupled from 13% in 2009 to 56% in 2014 in the USA.

Social Support and SNS Use

Social support, which includes resources embedded in interactions within a social network, can minimize the negative effects of stress and enhance psychological and physical health. Kin contacts, such as family members, provide substantive support, while non-kin relationships, such as friends, offer enjoyment and feelings of autonomy.

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SNSs connect users to both kin and non-kin social contacts. Older adults often use SNSs to connect with family members, such as adult children, relatives, and grandchildren. However, SNS use may have less impact on older adults’ relations with kin, as multiple channels are available to communicate with them.

SNSs and Non-Kin Connections

SNSs enable users to create "social supernets" and manage larger networks, which may help older adults increase the size of their social networks and gain access to a wider range of social support. Older adults often use SNSs to reconnect with dormant ties or old acquaintances. SNSs are also used to facilitate new connections among older adults.

Establishing connections with social contacts and engaging in relationship maintenance activities is associated with higher perceived levels of social capital among adults. SNS use by older adults may enable them to connect with weaker ties (non-kin), which may be associated with exchanges of social support.

Loneliness and SNS Use

Loneliness describes subjective feelings that one's social needs are not being met. It can negatively influence older adults’ physical health. Loneliness can be differentiated into feelings of isolation and connectedness. Feelings of isolation describe a sense of being distant from intimate others, whereas feelings of connectedness suggest a sense of having a social network.

SNSs may not play an important role in alleviating kin relation-based loneliness (feelings of isolation) when compared to other forms of interaction. However, SNSs can connect older adults to weaker ties, and older adults may experience increased feelings of connectedness associated with their SNS use.

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Age and Social Well-being

The relationships between SNS use and social well-being may vary by age in the older population. The involuntary loss hypothesis suggests that decreased social engagement with age prompts older adults to cultivate new social connections. The voluntary loss hypothesis suggests that older adults deliberately narrow their social networks due to reduced resources in later life.

Other Research Areas

Additional research areas include:

The impact of caring for grandchildren on grandparents’ physical health outcomes.
The relationship between retirement, leisure activity engagement, and cognition among older adults.
Mobile health technologies to support self-management of concurrent diabetes and hypertension.
The effects of widowhood and leisure activity engagement on cognitive function among older adults.
The relationship between leisure activity, gender, and depressive symptoms among dementia caregivers.
The role of cognitive leisure activities in the relationship between education and cognition.

Mortality Risk in Old Age

Studies have investigated factors influencing mortality risk in old age, including:

Loneliness, health, and mortality.
Diabetes, depressive symptoms, and mortality risk, with consideration of the moderating role of inflammation.
The relationship between weight changes and all-cause mortality.
The impact of accelerated progression of white matter hyperintensities on mortality risk.

Life Transitions and Leisure Activity

Research has examined the impact of life transitions, such as retirement and widowhood, on leisure activity engagement among older adults. Encouraging active leisure engagement among individuals who experience these life transitions may help maintain their health.

Gender Norms and Health Outcomes

Studies have explored the association between adolescent gender expression and health behaviors and outcomes in adulthood. Gender expression was found to be stable for men and women from adolescence to adulthood, and high masculinity or femininity was associated with adverse health outcomes and behaviors.

Economic Strain and Health

Research has investigated the combined effects of education and economic strain on health outcomes in Black older adults. Economic strain was found to be a more salient social determinant of health than educational attainment in economically constrained urban environments.

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