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Livelihood, Living Condition And Coping Strategies Among Older Persons
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Sociologists
do not question the idea that age and ageing are linked to biological
and psychological development, but they cannot be fully understood
without reference to their social context. Just as race and sex were
once seen in purely biological and psychological terms but now viewed
sociologically through concepts such as ethnicity and gender, age can
also be seen in sociological terms. From this perspective, age can be
seen as, in part, a social construction. The meaning of old age varies
from society to society. In the traditional societies, the elderly are
revered for their wisdom and have high social status and considerable
power (Haralambos et al, 2008). The social status of the elderly have,
however, crashed in the contemporary society. At this particular stage,
most of the older persons might have been disengaged from their
long-life activities. Poverty, emotional and material neglect are the
major challenges faced by the aged especially when their family members
are nowhere to be found in terms of support.
Most developed countries
of the world have accepted the chronological age of 65 years as a
definition of ‘elderly’ or older person, but like many westernized
concepts, this does not adapt well to the situation in Africa (World
Health Organization, 2014). Age classification varied between
differences or functional ability related to the workforce, but more
often than not was a reflection of the political and economic situation
of countries, which could also include the life expectancy of the people
of the country. Many a time, the definition is linked to the retirement
age, which in some instances, was lower for women than men. This
transition in livelihood became the basis for the definition of old age
which occurred between ages of 45 and 55 for women and between the ages
of 55 and 75 years for men (Thane, 1978).
When attention was drawn to
older populations in many developing countries, the definition of old
age many times followed the same path as that in more developed
countries, that is, the government sets the definition by stating a
retirement age. Considering that a majority of old persons in
sub-Saharan Africa live in rural areas and work outside the formal
sector, and thus expect no formal retirement or retirement benefits,
this imported logic seems quite illogical. This is one of the flaws of
the definition of older persons from the western world because most of
the dwellers in the rural areas of the developing countries work in the
informal sector and the application of retirement to old age would not
be substantive to work for them. Further, when this definition is
applied to regions where relative life expectancy is much lower and size
of older population is much smaller, the utility of this definition
becomes even more limited. Thus, the definition of older persons
shouldn’t be given from a myopic point of view but should consider the
fact that the human variation is not an abstract concept but a global
phenomenon and the all encompassing concept of age should be put into
consideration.
A single definition, such as chronological age or
social, cultural, functional markers e.t.c, is commonly used by, amongst
others, demographers, sociologists, anthropologists, economists and
researchers, it seems more appropriate in Africa to use a combination of
chronological, functional and social definitions. Despite Nigeria is
considered and classified among the developing countries, it still
maintain the definition of 65 years (retirement age) for an old person.
The
population of older people is on the increase worldwide. Despite the
fact that the life expectancy of humans in developing countries like
Nigeria is lower than that of the developed countries. Advances in
medicine had contributed to this phenomenon which had seen the
population of the Western world to age gracefully and constitute a old
population while the developing countries is having a young population
due to high fertility rate and lower life expectancy..
Demographically,
in most nations of the world, persons below 15 years and 65 and above
are regarded as the dependent population which is in contrast to those
who are between the ages of 15 and 64 years of age, who are seen as the
independent population. The individuals who are 65 and above must have
gone through the first stage of dependency (0 – 14 years), second stage
of being dependent (15–64 years) and back being dependent again due to
old age which must have disengaged then from the active activities in
the society.
Livelihood means the way one earns money in order to
survive. It also connotes the current condition of individual and
households and the ways or means via which they reproduce themselves.
Some of the socio-economic factors that may impact on the livelihood of
the older persons include relative wealth, poverty, access to resources
and ownership of property/assets (Amaike, 2005).
Coping strategy
could be referred to the specific efforts, both behavioral and
psychological, that people employ to master, tolerate, reduce, or
minimize stressful events. There are two general coping strategies:
problem-solving strategies are efforts to do something active to
alleviate stressful circumstances, whereas emotion-focused coping
strategies involve efforts to regulate the emotional consequences of
stressful or potentially stressful events. Research indicates that
people use both types of strategies to combat most stressful events
(Folkman & Lazarus, 1980). The older persons engage in different
coping strategies to keep body, soul and spirit together. For some of
them who retired in the formal sectors, the set up small or medium scale
businesses like rental services, renting out of building material among
others to get their feet grounded after they must have been disengaged
from the activities they have done for almost half of the life. Some
other people, who had no opportunity of such, go into alms begging and
some others depend largely on family members and relatives.
Being old
does not necessarily make people poor, it is just that the risk of
being poor increases. Those people who are poor in old age are most
likely to be those who have earned least in their working days or worked
outside the formal sector where pensions and other benefits would be
given to them (Moore et al, 2001).
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]Older persons are known for wisdom because they have experienced more days or years on earth more than others. At some point in live, the older persons are disengage from their long life activities and thus, they are deprived of some basic things. The society had been structured that the older persons cannot hold some particular posts or performs some particular activities. The last ASUU-LASU strike has some of the elements of retirement as its core problem with the Government. The older persons ... Continue reading---
