Veronica Someşan

Elderly Needs and Support Received

Veronica Someşan, Mihaela Hărăguş

Article information

Abstract

Old age comes with health deterioration and limitations in everyday activities, as well as feelings of loneliness and depression. When there is a shortfall between the care and support a person needs and what they actually receive, we are in the presence of unmet needs for support. We investigate the degree of unmet needs for support, as well as the risk factors for such a situation, using Generation and Gender Survey data for Romania (wave 1). We found that partner’s absence is strongly associated with a situation of unmet emotional needs, as we expected. Being childless also increase the likelihood of loneliness-related unmet emotional needs, but a close proximity to the children is not always emotionally beneficial since conflicts can occur. It seems that weaknesses in the functional status of the elderly are associated with more frequent interactions with close people and, thus, with a low likelihood of having unmet emotional needs.

Keywords: elderly, emotional needs, loneliness, depression, care needs, intergenerational support, unmet needs

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