Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The UK is an ageing society.Between 1971 and 2009, the proportion of the population aged 75 and over increased from 4.7% to 7.8% and is projected to rise to 11.7% by 2031.The growth rates in the 75 years and over group of the population differ by gender as life expectancy for men is increasing at a faster rate than for women.With a narrowing gap in life expectancy between men and women, the lived experiences of older men merit greater research attention.Furthermore, twice as many women as men live alone when older which makes older men who live alone a minority group.This may have led to the experiences and social worlds of this group of men remaining largely invisible, posing questions about what they are and how they may be appropriately investigated.The thesis is an exploratory study of the everyday lives, social worlds and relationships of community-dwelling men, aged 75 and over, living alone.Using Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory as a framework, older men's lives were explored in context, both temporal and spatial, shedding light on the interaction of various systems which influence the experience of living alone later in life and the social interactions which are meaningful to individual men.Methodological challenges to exploring more hidden relationships were overcome by involving the men as collaborators.Using collaborator-generated photographs, they were able to engage in the research and had some control over issues which were meaningful to them.In that way, stereotyping this group of men as problematic or lacking social relationships was avoided and it was possible to reveal the more hidden interactions of these older men.A purposive sample of sixteen men from Norfolk, UK, collaborated in the research.The men had entered solo living through many, varied routes.Constructivist grounded theory analysis revealed this group of men to be competent, adaptive and resourceful within the home.They identified how they employed strategies to stay connected with others and valued many kinds of interactions, some rarely considered in previous research.Family relationships were important to the men who were part of families but mostly family did not provide daily social interactions and family members were at times intrusive.Theoretical reflections and insight offered by these findings are used to argue that researchers have paid too little attention to all meaningful interactions in older men's lives.Conceptualising the space between intimates and strangers as a continuum may provide an alternative lens through which to understand older men's social interactions.Improved understanding of men's preferred social interactions can assist in the development of appropriate services for men.
Author: Pernille Dissing Sørensen
Language: English
Subfield: Life-span and Life-course Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W778468052