Psychological Needs in Older Women Living Alone and Healthy Psychological Aging*
In Turkey, it is seen that the rate of married people decreases as age increases, and the rate of women who lose their spouses and become widowed in their old age increases. When the literature on older women living alone is examined, it is seen that risk factors and risk groups are the subject of more research. It can be said that as the level of meeting the psychological needs of individuals increases, positive emotions increase. For this reason, it is thought that it is important to investigate protective factors as well as risk factors. The main purpose of this research was to analyze the psychological needs of women over the age of 60 living alone in a city on the Aegean coast of Turkey. Purposeful sampling method was used in this study. A qualitative method was preferred and open-ended semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants. These 12 participants are women over the age of 60 who are widowed or divorced, living alone, meet their basic financial needs and do not have any significant health problems, attend the trainings and courses of the city council. The data was collected by phone calls due to Covid-19 pandemic. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data. As a result of the analysis, the psychological needs of women living alone over the age of 60 were explained in categories such as survival, belonging, power, freedom and fun. It can be said that meeting the psychological needs of older women living alone as much as possible will increase the opportunity for healthy psychological aging. As a result of the research, it has been suggested to provide opportunities to meet the psychological needs of the elderly in order to successfully maintain the aging period, which is a neglected area, and to facilitate healthy psychological aging.
*Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahu Arıcıoğlu
Pamukkale University, Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Sciences, Denizli – TURKEY
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