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Ageism and Psychosocial Wellbeing Among the Elderly Persons in Rivers South-East Senatorial District, Rivers State

Monday, Finess, Prof. Agbakwuru, C

Abstract

The study was on ageism and psychosocial wellbeing among elderly persons in Rivers South- East Senatorial District, Rivers State. The study was guided by three specific objectives. Correlational research design was used in the study. The study population consist of over 84,900 elderly people who are 60+ years and who can read and respond to the instrument of the study. The sample of the study consist of 500 elderly drawn using multi-stage sampling procedure. Two instruments were used for the study. They are Ageism Scale (AS) and the “Elderly Socio-Mental Wellness Scale” . The validity was determined by experts in measurement. Reliability of the instrument were determine using Crombach Alpha method. The analysis yielded reliability coefficient of 0.83 for Ageism Scale (AS) and 0.88 for the Elderly Socio-Mental Wellness Scale . The overall average reliability co-efficient for the combined instrument was 0.83. Simple and multiple regression was used to analyze the data generated. Finding revealed that ageism has relationship with psychosocial (p=0.013<0.05) and social wellbeing (p=0.000<0.05). Based on this, it was recommended among others that government and NGOs should promote resilience-building programs for the elderly, such as counselling and coping skills workshops, to help them reframe negative stereotypes into motivation for self-worth.

Keywords

Ageism and psychological wellbeingsocial wellbeingElderly persons

References

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