نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسندگان
1 استادیار گروه علوم اجتماعی، دانشکده علوم اجتماعی و اقتصادی، دانشگاه الزهرا، تهران، ایران. (نویسنده مسئول). m.larijani@alzahra.ac.ir
2 دانشجوی دکتری مشاوره، دانشگاه تهران، تهران، ایران. moslehi.mohadeseh@gmail.com
چکیده
کلیدواژهها
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسندگان [English]
Feeling lonely is one of the most critical issues in old age that affects the mental health of this population, and it can cause complex social and psychological problems for the elderly
By adopting a phenomenological approach, the present study qualitatively studied the feeling of loneliness in elderly women in Tehran and, using the in-depth interview technique, reflected the lived experience of 22 older women who were selected using purposive sampling with maximum diversity.
The main research questions regarding the perception of loneliness in older women were how to deal with loneliness and use cyberspace to adapt to loneliness.
The findings of this study show that older women interpret the feeling of loneliness in the form of two main categories of unpleasant and desirable feelings. From the participants' point of view, unpleasant loneliness is interpreted with the major categories of feeling lonely with anxiety, loneliness with disengagement, loneliness with dysfunction and loneliness with physical illness, and pleasant loneliness in the form of leisure and satisfaction with Loneliness means. Respondents cite the reasons for adopting virtual actions to adapt to feeling lonely in facilitating interactions, entertainment and reducing negative thoughts and feelings, acquiring knowledge and experiences related to life, and updating and keeping pace with progress and modernization.
Keywords
Elderly Women, Loneliness, Cyberspace, Quality of Life, Phenomenology.
Introduction
One of the inevitable stages of human life is the elderly stage when people suffer from physical weaknesses, many problems, and the need for others. About 14% of the population of our country is elderly, and predicted, this figure will reach about 30% in 1430. The ageing phenomenon in Iran is affected by gender, and statistics show that the number of older women is more than older men. The elderly is also associated with psychological and social dimensions. One is the perception of loneliness and considering yourself a non-important and non-loving person.
The importance of this issue is that the sense of loneliness is an essential indicator of mental health and quality of life, which has an overall effect on increasing the probability and strengthening of mental and physical diseases during the ageing period. Another importance is that increasing the population of the elderly in Iran adds to the number of people facing complex issues with sophisticated issues and reduces family and social relationships on their mental health and body.
Therefore, improving living conditions, increasing health care and health and improving the quality of life of the elderly needs to spend attention and attention. One of the factors in increasing the quality of life of the elderly is confronting the feeling of loneliness. Some believe that the treatment of loneliness is the development of the mechanisms of confrontation alone. Therefore, with increasing communication, this confrontation can be done،Because loneliness levels are associated with social communication skills, self-support and social distance. The amount of communication skills in the elderly significantly predict their loneliness. Therefore, some elderly use digital communication technology to interact with others. Elderly, although they are not able to attend society due to physical weaknesses and the lack of children at home, their presence in cyberspace helps compensate for the lack of social relations. The witness is a claim that shows that there is a significant positive relationship between the variable of feeling loneliness and the use of the Internet. Due to the few studies associated with the factors associated with the sense of loneliness in the elderly, the study of the perception of the loneliness of elderly women and their adaptation with this feeling in cyberspace can increase the quality of life of the elderly and identify the opportunities and potential dangers of space The virtual for this cortex is a community of community.
Methodology
The present study, with the adoption of the phenomenological approach, studied the loneliness in older women, and using the deep interview technique, the response of 22 elderly women aged 56 to 74 years old and residents in Tehran who were selected using targeted sampling with maximum variation. Moreover, the sample size determines the saturation of the data. Respondents from ages, marital status, employment status, the number of children and the level of income have been different, and users have been in different virtual spaces so that we thus gain a general picture of the loneliness of elderly women with different demographic characteristics.
The main questions of the present study regarded the perception of loneliness in older women, how to face loneliness and the use of cyberspace in adaptation to feeling lonely.
Findings
The findings of this study show that older women interpret the feeling of loneliness in the form of two categories of unpleasant loneliness and favorable loneliness. In the category of unpleasant loneliness, respondents believe that social and loneliness is in older women with social issues and lack of mental and physical health, and this feeling in the form of pivotal issues of loneliness with anxiety, feeling lonely with unobtrusive, The loneliness of loneliness is interpreted with physical illness and loneliness. Loneliness occurs when meaningful interactions are diminished and the network of elderly relations with family, friends and social decreases quantitatively and qualitatively.
On the other hand, the feeling of disability and disability for its economic problems and surroundings leads to the perception of anxiety in the elderly. Older women with children, marriage and spouses feel strongly lonely and, on the other hand, will not want to make new relationships like marriage. However, exciting findings in this research have been the perception of pleasant loneliness in some respondents; This means that reducing social activities and spatial family responsibilities has created for addressing personal affairs and briefing for elderly women, which seems to have a positive attitude toward the elderly to their lives and their social and economic base. Another part of the research findings refers to participants' attendance and non-attendance in the face of loneliness. In this research, elderly women have worked with religious centres and spiritualism activities, visited acquaintances, study and art activities to increase their sense of utility and efficiency.
Result
Virtual activities of respondents were expressed in web search engines, in search engines, and participated in WhatsApp and Instagram social networks. Elderly women have interpreted a solution from the feeling of loneliness with the tendency to cyberspace and believe that cyberspace has led to facilitating interactions, entertainment, reducing negative thoughts and emotions, knowledge and experience related to life, updated And synchronized with progress and modernism and facilitating addressing daily programs The participants in this study show that along with the applications of cyberspace in adaptation to feeling loneliness, negative emotions and contradictions such as feelings of fear and shame, distrust and dissatisfaction with the current life for elderly women, the necessity of adequate knowledge and awareness From cyberspace to reduce its damage for the elderly.
Given that ageing occurs with reduced physical strength and the dominance of disease, activity in virtual networks can compensate for the elderly to be present in social environments, and the presence at home can continue their communication and feel Avoid isolation alone. In addition to the applications of cyberspace in adapting to feelings of loneliness, negative emotions and contradictions such as feelings of fear and shame, mistrust and dissatisfaction with the current life have also created for older women the need for sufficient knowledge and awareness of cyberspace to reduce harm. It doubles it for the elderly.
کلیدواژهها [English]
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