SOCIAL CONNECTEDNESS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ADAPTIVENESS AS PREDICTORS OF EMOTIONAL WELLBEING OF THE ELDERLY IN IBADAN, NIGERIA

Abstract

Emotional well-being, an individual‟s subjective feelings of happiness, satisfied social relationships and self-contentment, is necessary for successful ageing. However, reports have shown that the emotional well-being (EWb) among many elderly people is poor in Ibadan, Nigeria. Previous studies focused more on psychological intervention to improve EWb of adults than on prediction of EWb of the elderly people. This study, therefore, was designed to examine Social Connectedness SC (Social Integration- SI, Social NetworkingSN and Social Supports- SS) and Psychological Adaptiveness (PA: Copping EfficacyCE, self-esteem, religiosity and Quality of Life- QoL) as predictors of EWb of the elderly in Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria. The Havighurst, Fredrickson and Namaba Ageing theories served as the framework, while the mixed methods design was adopted. The five Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Ibadan were enumerated and 35 wards (7 per Local Government) were randomly selected. The WHO 30 by 7 cluster sampling technique was adopted to select 30 elderly persons aged (60 years and above) in each selected ward (but a total of 987 elders finally participated). The Instruments used were EWb (α=0.89), SI (α=0.89), SN (α=0.87), SS (α=0.76), CE (α=0.89), Self-esteem (α=0.82), QoL (α=0.92) and Religiosity (α=0.84) scales. Indepth interviews were held with 10 elderly persons (2 per local government). Quantitative data were analysed using t-test, Pearson product moment correlation and Multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance, while qualitative data were contentanalysed. Majority of the participants (54.8%) were female; 61.3% were married; those with perceived good health status were 57.8% while 93.8% were of high religiosity. Their EWb ( = 2.6) was positive against the threshold of 2.5. The SS (r =0.39), QoL (r=0.36), SN (r=0.30), SI (r=0.26), self-esteem (r=0.25), CE (r=0.21) and religiosity (r=0.19) had significant correlations with EWb of the elderly. There was a significant joint contribution of SC and PA on EWb (F(7; 979)=37.21; Adj. R2=.021), accounting for 20.1% of its variance. The QoL (β=0.33), SS (β=0.29), SN (β=0.19) and SI (β=0.08) had relative contributions to the EWb of the elderly, while CE, self-esteem and religiosity had none. Most of the elderly relied more on their children and relatives for rendering supports and survival. Financial, health status, delayed pension, lack of social security, over reliance on children and emotional challenges were reported the major risk factors of low EWb among the elderly. Emotional well-being of the elderly in Ibadan metropolis was influenced by quality of life, social supports, social networking and social integration. These factors should be considered to improve emotional well-being of the elderly.