The Social World of Older People: Understanding Loneliness and Social Isolation in Later Life (Growing Older)

273 Pages·2008·1.82 MB·English

by  Christina Victor

CHRISTINA VICTOR,
T S W
HE OCIAL ORLD
SASHA SCAMBLER
O P
OF LDER EOPLE
AND JOHN BOND
UNDERSTANDINGLONELINESSANDSOCIALISOLATIONINLATERLIFE
G R O W I N GO L D E R
CHRISTINA VICTOR, SASHA SCAMBLER
AND JOHN BOND S E R I E S E D I T O R : A L A N W A L K E R
The Social World of Older Peopleprovides a Christina Victoris Professor in T
detailed account of loneliness and isolation as the School of Health and Social H
experienced by older people living in Britain. Care at the University of Reading, E
Social engagement and relationships are UK. She has edited two books for S
Open University Press; Critical O
important at any age and their quality is a key
Approaches to Ageing and Later C
element contributing to the quality of life for
Life(1997) and Researching I
older people. A
Ageing and Later Life(2002). L
The authors use vignettes of real experiences Sasha Scambleris Lecturer in W
to help explain and consider the incidence Sociology at King’s College
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and effects of isolation and loneliness, London Dental Institute. Her
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identifying the factors which lead to such interests include the sociology of
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experiences and considering potential chronic illness and disability, D
social theory and the sociology of
interventions. They also argue that these O
later life.
feelings are experienced at all stages of the F
life course and are not unique to the social John Bondis Professor of Social O
Gerontology and Health Services
world of older people.
Research and Deputy Director of L
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Victor, Scambler and Bond rationalise that this the Institute of Health and Society
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is an important area, as both loneliness and and a member of the Institute for R
social isolation are negatively associated with Ageing and Health, based at C P
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www.openup.co.uk
The Social World of
Older People
Growing Older
Series Editor: Alan Walker
The objective of this series is to showcase the major outputs from the
ESRC Growing Older programme and to provide research insights
which will result in improved understanding and practice and
enhanced and extended quality of life for older people.
It is well known that people are living longer but until now very little
attentionhasbeengiventothefactorsthatdeterminethequalityoflife
experienced by older people. This important new series will be vital
reading for a broad audience of policymakers, social gerontologists,
social policy analysists, nurses, social workers, sociologists and social
geographers as well as advanced undergraduate and postgraduate
students in these disciplines.
Series titles include:
Ann Bowling Ageing Well
Joanne Cook, Tony Maltby and Lorna Warren Older Women’s Lives
Mary Maynard, Haleh Afshar, Myfanwy Franks and Sharon Wray
Women in Later Life
Sheila Peace, Caroline Holland and Leonie Kellaher Environment and
Identity in Later Life
Thomas Scharf, Chris Phillipson and Allison E. Smith Ageing in the
City
Christina Victor, Sasha Scambler and John Bond The Social World of
Older People
Alan Walker (ed.) Growing Older in Europe
Alan Walker and Catherine Hagan Hennessy (eds) Growing Older:
Quality of Life in Old Age
Alan Walker (ed.) Understanding Quality of Life in Old Age
The Social World
of Older People
by Christina Victor, Sasha Scambler
and John Bond
Open University Press
OpenUniversityPress
McGraw-HillEducation
McGraw-HillHouse
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Maidenhead
Berkshire
England
SL62QL
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worldwideweb:www.openup.co.uk
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Firstpublished2009
Copyright#ChristinaVictor,SashaScamblerandJohnBond
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Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements vii
1 Introduction 1
2 Loneliness and social isolation: issues of theory and
method 31
3 Social relations and everyday life 81
4 Experiences of loneliness 128
5 Social exclusion and social isolation 168
6 Rethinking loneliness and social isolation in later life 201
References 228
Index 254

Preface and
acknowledgements
This book is the culmination of a research project that was funded as
partoftheESRCGrowingOlderProgramme.Whenwefirstdecidedto
collaborate with our colleague Ann Bowling on a number of grant
applications to the Growing Older Programme we did not anticipate
the germ of an idea that we should revisit ideas about loneliness in
social isolation would rouse the imagination of the commissioning
panel. That it did pleasantly surprised us. At the outset we were con-
cerned by the way ideas about loneliness and social isolation were
contributing to the negative stereotypes of later life and underpinning
of ageism. We wanted to re-evaluate the place of loneliness and social
isolation in social gerontological literature and argue for a more par-
simonious use of the concept in policy and practice. To do this we
needed to ground our critical arguments in the evidence of new data
about contemporary social relations in later life. The Growing Older
Programme gave us the space to reflect on these important ideas and
collectthenewsurveyandqualitativeinterviewdatathatweneededto
execute our research agenda.
The research was funded by the Economic and Social Research
Council(ESRC)aspartoftheGrowingOlderProgramme(AwardNo.
L480254042 [Loneliness and social isolation]). The survey was part
funded by grants held collaboratively by Professor Ann Bowling,
Professor Stephen Sutton and Dr David Banister (ESRC Award No.
L480254003 [Quality of Life]) and Professor Shah Ebrahim (MRC
Health Service Research Collaboration Award No. NNN [Health and
Disability]).
We are grateful to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) Omnibus
Survey staff, and the ONS Qualitative Research Unit, in particular
Maureen Kelly, Olwen Rowlands, Jack Eldridge and Kirsty Deacon for
their much appreciated advice and help with designing the main
questionnaire, for conducting focus groups with older people to
inform the design of the questionnaire, for sampling and overseeing
the ‘Quality of Life Interview’ and processing the data. We would like
to thank the ONS interviewers, Professor Janet Peacock and Louise
PREFACEANDACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Marston for statistical advice and Cath Brennand, and Cheryl
Wiscombe who assisted in the preparation of the manuscript. We are
also grateful to Professor Ann Bowling who was a co-applicant of the
ESRC grant (Award No. .L48025404).
Those who carried out the original analysis and collection of survey
data hold no responsibility for the further analysis and its interpreta-
tion.MaterialfromtheONSOmnibusSurvey,madeavailablethrough
ONS, has been used with the permission of the controller of the Sta-
tionary Office. The ONS Omnibus dataset was deposited by ONS on
the Data Archive at the University of Essex; the qualitative data was
depositedbytheresearchteamontheQualitativeDataArchive alsoat
the University of Essex. We are also grateful to Cambridge University
(Ageing and Society; Reviews in Clinical Gerontology; Social Policy
and Society), Pavilion (Quality and Ageing) and the editors Professor
Alan Walker and Catherine Hagan Hennessy and Open University
Press for permission to use already published material.
Finally we especially would like to thank all those older people who
gave so freely of their time to participate in this study. Without them
this book would not have been possible.
Publications stemming from the research
Victor, C., Scambler, S., Bond, J. and Bowling, A. (2000) ‘Being alone
in later life: loneliness, social isolation and living alone’, Reviews in
Clinical Gerontology, 10, pp. 407-417.
Victor, C., Scambler, S., Bond, J. and Bowling, A. (2002a) ‘Loneliness
in later life: preliminary findings from the Growing Older project’,
Quality in Ageing, 3, (1), pp. 34-41.
Victor, C. R., Scambler, S. J., Bond, J. and Bowling, A. (2004) ‘Lone-
liness in later life’, in Walker, A. and Hennessy, C. H.(eds) Growing
older: quality of life in old age. Open University Press: Maidenhead,
pp. 107-126.
Victor, C. R., Scambler, S. J., Bowling, A. and Bond, J. (2005a) ‘The
prevalenceof,andriskfactorsfor, lonelinessinlaterlife:asurveyof
older people in Great Britain’, Ageing and Society, 25, (3), pp. 357-
376.
viii
PREFACEANDACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Victor, C. R., Scambler, S. J., Marston, L., Bond, J. and Bowling, A.
(2005b) ‘Older people’s experiences of loneliness in the UK: does
gender matter?’ Social Policy and Society, 5, (1), pp. 27-38.
Victor,C.R.,Scambler,S.J.,Shah,S.,Cook,D.G.,Harris,T.,Rink,E.
and de Wilde, S. (2002b) ‘Has loneliness amongst older people
increased? An investigation into variations between cohorts’, Ageing
and Society, 22, (5), pp. 585-597.
Victor, C. R. and Scharf, T. (2005) ‘Social isolation and loneliness’, in
Walker, A.(ed), Understanding quality of life in old age. Open Uni-
versity Press: Maidenhead, pp. 100-116.
ix