A solidão dos idosos na dinâmica do envelhecimento

  • Vera Lúcia de Almeida Amaral Rodrigues (Student)

Student thesis: Master's Thesis

Abstract

The current study aims to establish a reading and understanding on the strategies that the elderly, who are integrated in the Social Answers, adopt to fight loneliness. It is, thus, intended to decipher the perception that an elderly has, regarding the state of loneliness; to get to know the strategies that those elderly adopt in order to fight loneliness and to understand whether the institutions, where they live, are prepared to soothe the feeling of loneliness that they have. For that, a study was carried out at Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Vizela, and 63 elderly aged 54-92 (M=76,89), took part in it along with their relatives. On the one hand, we made use of the quantitative methods to perceive the dimension of loneliness to which the elderly are subjected to; on the other hand, we made use of the qualitative methods in order to understand the relationship between the elderly and their relatives, whether it is about the place they have in their lives or the affectionate bonds between both parts. A survey was conducted using a questionnaire for the elderly and an interview for their relatives. The concept of loneliness has an intuitive character, for each person analyzes their state of loneliness, taking into consideration the situation they are exposed to; which, for many, the term solitude means to be alone. The fact that, at times, the elderly experience loneliness could be related with the monotony of their habits, since they no longer have work and they have some physical limitations; another aspect could be the lack of time spent together with family and friends as well as their peers. The elderly that state they experience loneliness relate this feeling to the lack of love, affection, company; and to the isolation and abandonment from their family, mainly their children and grandchildren.
Date of Award19 Feb 2014
Original languagePortuguese
Awarding Institution
  • Universidade Católica Portuguesa
SupervisorEduardo Jorge Gomes da Costa Duque (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Aging
  • The elderly
  • Family
  • Loneliness

Designation

  • Mestrado em Gerontologia Social Aplicada

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