THE DARKER DIMENSIONS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITIES: DISCRIMINATION AND ELDER ABUSE

Abstract

Older people who are discriminated against or abused often experience it over and above other forms of marginalisation which renders them doubly vulnerable. This presentation will provide results from the New Zealand Longitudinal Study of Ageing (NZLSA). Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach has formed the conceptual basis of the theoretical framework of this research programme (Sen, 1999). Two survey waves of a national random sample in excess of 3,000 older New Zealand citizens aged between 50 to 86 years have been carried out, which include a scale for discrimination and a screening scale for abuse alongside various questions and other scales on health, well-being and social connections. The results demonstrated statistically significant negative relationships between both discrimination and abuse on one hand, and health, well-being and social connections on the other. The human rights and policy implications of these findings will be explored.