Elderly Perception of Loneliness and Ways of Resolving it

INTRODUCTION
Research work by Baum (1982) indicates a reawakening interest in examining loneliness, especially among the elderly over the last several years which is of international in scope. One impetus for the new interest is the realization that loneliness is a serious and widespread problem for many elderly persons today (Weiss, 1973). Even though loneliness is perceived as an important consideration in oldage, there is no clear understanding of what loneliness is, or of what may contribute to, or exacerbate its development among the elderly. Although space constraints do not allow for a complete review of growing literature on loneliness (Hartog, Audy and Cohen, 1980) but some understanding of how loneliness is viewed is necessary to identify the basic issues involved. Polansky (1985) has indicated that “loneliness is a nearly universal human emotion-(where) all but the most fortunate-are subject to it.” Young (1980) defines loneliness as the absence or perceived absence of satisfactory social relationships. Russell, Peplau and Cutrona (1980) consider loneliness as reflecting interpersonal social relationships.
Loneliness has been shown to consist of atleast two distinct dimensions that are referred to by Weiss (1987) as emotional isolation-seen as the absence of an attachment figure in one’s life and social isolation-regarded as the absence of a place in an accepting community. The distinction between social and emotional loneliness is clearly one of the most influential in the literature. Weiss bases his distinction on the nature of the social deficit. Peplau and Perlman (1982) examined and viewed loneliness as an affective state in which the individual is aware of being apart from others and apart form familiar support networks or systems. Other writers have distinguished chronic from temporary loneliness, and negative vs positive forms of aloneness. Still others (e.g., Sadler & Johnson, 1980 and Ellison, 1978) have discussed such types of loneliness as self-estrangement and/ or existential loneliness. Existential loneliness may be more tied to the lack of religion or meaning in life than to a lack of interpersonal bonds.
Even so an examination of the literature on loneliness shows that being alone and being lonely are not necessarily coincident. Many consider and treat loneliness on synonymous with aloneness. Researchers perceive loneliness as a negative construct but aloneness is viewed as both positive as well as negative constructs. Negative aloneness is viewed as the emotional experience of being apart from others when he/she wants to be part of them and positive aloneness is viewed as a feeling to stay away from others, to be close with one’s own self. In this research negative perception of loneliness is treated in synonymous with negative aloneness and positive perception of loneliness is viewed as the combination of both negative and positive aloneness.
Though loneliness has been conceived as a problem for everyone from children to elderly people (Schultz & Moore, 1984 and Natale, 1986) however, it is more distressing for elderly because their spouses might be deceased or due to the fading of occupational and social networks upon retirement. Religious behaviours and spiritual well-being are associated with low loneliness in the elderly (Walten et al., 1991).
Purpose of the study
Review of literature on loneliness leads to the conclusion that research on loneliness particularly in Indian context is inadequate. Social psychologists and gerontologists are becoming increasingly aware that a sense of control is an important determinant of the aged individual’s physical and psychological well-being (Schultz, 1976). Hence this study has been attempted to find out the perception of the elderly towards loneliness and to study the major activities involved into ward off loneliness among the elderly.
Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were formulated and tested:
1. The elderly individuals perceive loneliness as an unwanted situation.
2. Religion appears as the major activity to resolve loneliness among the elderly.
METHOD
Sample
The total number of subjects was 60. The sample comprised of 30 elderly men and 30 elderly women in age ranging from 50 to 82 years (Mean age=63 years). The subjects were selected from Coimbatore district (Manchester of South India) in Tamil Nadu. The subjects (both males and females) were contacted individually by the researcher and data was collected by face-to-face interview.
Tool
The tools used in this study by the researcher were:
1. Personal Information Schedule: An “information schedule” was designed by the investigator to procure demographic and biographical information from the sample required for the study.
2. Informal Interview Schedule: An “interview schedule” was prepared by the investigator to extract information from the respondents from eight areas, namely, birth and childhood life, relationship with significant others, health and school experience, work life, marital life, views regarding loneliness, whether prefer to be alone at times, if ‘yes’ and ‘why?’ And ways of resolving loneliness.
For the present research incidental sampling technique was employed. Each subject was individually contacted by the researcher and data was obtained in a face-to-face manner. Data collection was done for duration of 30 days.
Statistical Analysis
Percentage scores and chi-square tests were calculated.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 1 shows the perception of elderly towards loneliness
Perception of Elderly No. of responses Percentage of responses
Positive 15 25%
Negative 35 58.3%
Mixed 10 16.6%
X2(2) = 17.5; p<0.01

Table 2 shows the frequency of subjects resorting to various activities to ward off loneliness

Activity

Frequency
Percentage
Religion
20 33.3%
Hobbies
22 36.6%
Social Activities
18 30%
X2(2) = 0.4; NS
There were no significant gender differences found towards the perception of loneliness. The results in Table 1 show that chi-square value for 2df is significant below 0.01 level of confidence which confirms the first hypothesis. The chi-square value also indicates that perception of loneliness in terms of positive, negative, and mixed qualities in not equally distributed. As mentioned earlier the examination of the literature of loneliness shows that being alone and being lonely are not coincident, but many subjects in this study treated loneliness as synonymous with aloneness hence in this research loneliness is treated on par with being alone. Table 1 indicated that about 58% of the elderly perceive loneliness negatively (negative aloneness) this is in accordance with the findings of previous researches on loneliness which have indicated that majority of the elderly perceived loneliness as an unwanted situation (e.g. , Seligman, 1975; Weiss, 1973; etc). These findings are also supported by prior findings of Bowling et al (1989) who examined factor related to loneliness in 590 female and 60 male elderly (aged 85+ years) and stated that loneliness is undesirable because it arises due to increased physical impairment, small social network, increased psychiatric morbidity and lack of confidante. This result also indicates that about 25% of the elderly perceive loneliness positively (positive aloneness), a condition whereby the elderly avoids contacts with others and prefer to be in contact with one’s own self mainly due to the stereotypes and prejudices present in the society regarding oldage. Table 1 also points out that nearly 17% of the elderly have mixed perception towards loneliness which is due to vague or unclear views regarding the experience of loneliness.
The results of Table 2 indicate the chi-square value for 2df is not significant which states all the three major activities, namely, religion, hobbies, and social activities are equally spread among the elderly population to ward off loneliness. The present finding does not confirm the second hypothesis which states that “religion appear as the major activity to resolve loneliness among the elderly.”
This finding is supported by the earlier research by Kivett (1979) who investigated religion as motivating factor among 301 elderly persons and found that elderly with high idealized self-concept and adults believing more in personal control are less likely to be motivated by religion. Querry and Steins (1974) found that religion optimism decreased with age. Generally, loneliness is viewed more of a social phenomena, hobbies tend to predominate the leisure time activities in later life play an important role. Normally elderly people resolve loneliness by means of social activities and hobbies such as gardening, fishing, reading, etc. along with religious activities. Hence this study indicates that all three major activities are equally spread to ward off loneliness among elderly.
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