Perceived psychosocial stresses among elderly with special reference to their family pattern

Abstract

Everyone experiences stress from womb to tomb. But being aged means getting more prone to have psychosocial stress, as aging itself involves lots of bio-psychosocial changes. Therefore, exploratory study was conducted in the month of December 2012 at selected old age homes of district Ludhiana. The objective of this study was to assess the level of psychosocial stresses among elderly residing in selected old age homes, to explore their family pattern, and to compare the level of psychosocial stresses according to the family pattern. A sample of 60 subjects (elderly above 60 years of age) was selected through total enumerative sampling. Data was collected using standardized Stokes/Gordon’s Stress Scale [SGGS]. It was found that 77 % of subjects living in old age homes were in mild psychosocial stress, while 23 % were having moderate psychosocial stress. It was also concluded that female elderly and those residing in old age homes from less than one year were having significantly higher level of psychosocial stress. It was generally observed that although majority of subjects had co residence (i.e. lived with spouse and children) as their actual living arrangement but preference to live alone was high. Moreover, most of the elderly had sons and daughters alive, but none of them were accompanying or caring them.