The relationship between older people's awareness of the term elder abuse and actual experiences of elder abuse

Abstract

There was a relatively high level of awareness of the term elder abuse; however, a substantial proportion of people could not readily associate abusive behaviors within their personal lives with elder abuse. Public information campaigns need to move beyond simple awareness rising to enable people to bridge the gap between a theoretical understanding of elder abuse and recognizing inappropriate behavior in their own circumstances.

Older People’s Perceptions of the Term Elder Abuse and Characteristics Associated With a Lower Level of Awareness

“…The disparity between the perception of how widespread elder abuse is and actual prevalence from survey data (the prevalence of elder abuse in this population was between 2.2% and 5.5% depending on the definition used (Naughton et al, 2012(Naughton et al, , 2013) is partly due to older people having a broader view on what constitutes elder abuse compared to official definitions. For example, crimes by strangers are excluded from official definitions and "a lack of respect" or "being impatient" are more likely to be considered within the boundaries of ageism rather than abuse (Biggs & Haapala, 2013).…”

“…The study population in the analysis in this article included people who disclosed experiences of abuse in later questions. The relationship between awareness of the term elder abuse and experiences of abuse is explored in a separate publication (Naughton, Drennan, Lyons, & Lafferty, 2013).…”

Socioeconomic status, social relations and domestic violence (DV) against elderly people in Canada, Albania, Colombia and Brazil

“…The Kingston cohort had the highest education levels among the five settings. This group may also have had a lower threshold for classifying behaviors as psychological violence; conversely, the acceptance of some behaviors as normal may have precluded their classification as violence in other, more traditional, settings (Naughton, Drennan, Lyons, & Lafferty, 2013). Social values and beliefs can influence perceptions of perpetration (Flood & Pease, 2009).…”

Prevalence of violence against the elderly and associated factors - a population based study in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina

“…7 Other studies have shown that elderly individuals who are subjected to violence are generally single women of an advanced age with a low level of education and some form of physical or psychological dependence which has led to them living with either their children, grandchildren or daughters-in-law. 8,9 In western culture, violence against the elderly occurs irrespective of socioeconomic level and is linked to the socially-accepted idea that the elderly are unproductive and cannot learn. 10,11 It is believed that this violence damages the functional capacity of the elderly and any type of abuse causes unnecessary suffering, injury, pain and loss, while violating the human rights of individuals and reducing their quality of life.…”