Older men living alone

369 Pages·2012·9.04 MB·English

Older men living alone: a photo-
elicitation study of their social
worlds

Pernille Gedde Sorensen
School of Social Work and Psychology,
University of East Anglia

Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
March 2012

© This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is
understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that no quotation from the
thesis, nor any information derived there-from may be published without the author's prior,
written consent.
Abstract

The UK is an ageing society. Between 1971 and 2009, the proportion of the population aged 75
and over increased from 4.7% to 7.8% and is projected to rise to 11.7% by 2031. The growth
rates in the 75 years and over group of the population differ by gender as life expectancy for
men is increasing at a faster rate than for women. With a narrowing gap in life expectancy
between men and women, the lived experiences of older men merit greater research attention.
Furthermore, twice as many women as men live alone when older which makes older men who
live alone a minority group. This may have led to the experiences and social worlds of this group
of men remaining largely invisible, posing questions about what they are and how they may be
appropriately investigated.
The thesis is an exploratory study of the everyday lives, social worlds and relationships of
community-dwelling men, aged 75 and over, living alone. Using Bronfenbrenner’s (1979)
ecological systems theory as a framework, older men’s lives were explored in context, both
temporal and spatial, shedding light on the interaction of various systems which influence the
experience of living alone later in life and the social interactions which are meaningful to
individual men.
Methodological challenges to exploring more hidden relationships were overcome by involving
the men as collaborators. Using collaborator-generated photographs, they were able to engage
in the research and had some control over issues which were meaningful to them. In that way,
stereotyping this group of men as problematic or lacking social relationships was avoided and it
was possible to reveal the more hidden interactions of these older men. A purposive sample of
sixteen men from Norfolk, UK, collaborated in the research. The men had entered solo living
through many, varied routes.
Constructivist grounded theory analysis revealed this group of men to be competent, adaptive
and resourceful within the home. They identified how they employed strategies to stay
connected with others and valued many kinds of interactions, some rarely considered in
previous research. Family relationships were important to the men who were part of families
but mostly family did not provide daily social interactions and family members were at times
intrusive.
Theoretical reflections and insight offered by these findings are used to argue that researchers
have paid too little attention to all meaningful interactions in older men’s lives. Conceptualising
the space between intimates and strangers as a continuum may provide an alternative lens
through which to understand older men’s social interactions. Improved understanding of men’s
preferred social interactions can assist in the development of appropriate services for men.
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Acknowledgements

This thesis has only been made possible by the enthusiastic collaboration of sixteen men. They
have given so freely of their time, welcomed me into their homes and shared their many life
experiences. I am so very grateful.
I would like to thank my supervisors Professor Ann McDonald and Dr Fiona Poland who have
both, in their own distinctive ways, guided me through the PhD process. Their patience, advice
and judgement have been invaluable throughout my journey.
Many thanks to my PhD colleagues, especially Hollie, Heather and Michela, for their friendship
and unwavering support, as well as numerous long lunches.
Thank you to my friends who have waited patiently whilst I have been absorbed in another
world. Particularly Jane D, Jane and Henry and Sarah. I am grateful for your patience. I also want
to thank Tara who has listened, discussed and provided encouragement over many cups of
coffee.
Two very special people were not able to see the end of my project and their deaths were a very
low point on my journey. Thank you, Inge-Lise and Colin, for being there at the beginning.
I am indebted to my family for their untiring encouragement. My mother for her continuous
nurturing which has made me what I am. George, Virginia and Albert for distracting me with
their endless love, energy and humour and assisting me with their superior technical skills.
David, I thank you for travelling beside me on my long journey. Your love provided an anchor
without which I would have been lost.
Finally, I want to dedicate this thesis to my father who sadly never lived to experience old age.

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Contents

Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ 2
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………………………………..............3
List of Tables .................................................................................................................................... 5
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................... 6
List of Appendices ............................................................................................................................ 7
Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 8
Chapter 2: Social policy in an ageing society ................................................................................. 19
Chapter 3: Social capital, social networks and social support ...................................................... 42
Chapter 4: Living alone, loneliness and social isolation ................................................................ 67
Chapter 5: Psychosocial development and wellbeing in later life ................................................ 85
Chapter 6: Methodology ............................................................................................................. 106
Chapter 7: Introduction to the research findings ....................................................................... 146
Chapter 8: Men at home .............................................................................................................. 151
Chapter 9: Men out and about ................................................................................................... 183
Chapter 10: Men in families ........................................................................................................ 226
Chapter 11: Discussion and conclusions ..................................................................................... 262
References ................................................................................................................................... 282
Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 329

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List of Tables

Table 1: Differences between ‘classic’ and constructivist grounded theory……………………………117
Table 2: The various and complex routes to living alone………………………………………………………..129
Table 3: Summary of the number and types of photographs taken by individual men…………..148

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List of Figures

Figure 1: Visual representation of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model…………………………………….12
Figure 2: The interconnectedness of social capital, social networks and social support……………60
Figure 3: Proposed combinations of loneliness and social isolation………………………………………..75
Figure 4: The interconnections and overlaps of living alone, loneliness and social isolation…….83
Figure 5: Mr Bridge demonstrating his bath hoist…………………………………………………………….......140
Figure 6: Mr Pollock’s car engine……………………………………………………………………………………………157
Figure 7: Mr Smith eating his meals-on-wheels lunch…………………………………………………………….162
Figure 8: Mr Brown’s microwave…………………………………………………………………………………………...163
Figure 9: A tree in Mr David’s garden which reminds him of his wife……………………………………..172
Figure 10: Mr McBeth’s flat and some items he kept from his marital home………………………….176
Figure 11: Mr Smith’s car which he still drives occasionally…………………………………………………...186
Figure 12: Mr Beejay enjoyed bus rides………………………………………………………………………………….189
Figure 13: Mr Crosby spent every day at the market………………………………………………………………199
Figure 14: Mr Beejay would visit the newsagent every day…………………………………………………….212
Figure 15: Mr Delaney was a keen biker…………………………………………………………………………………213
Figure 16: Mr Crosby in his cowboy outfit………………………………………………………………………………218
Figure 17: Mr Dennis could no longer change a light bulb in the ceiling………………………………...229
Figure 18: Mr McBeth and his family during a regular weekend evening visit…………………........239
Figure 19: Mr Bridge doing his weekly shopping…………………………………………………………………….244

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List of Appendices

Appendix A: Interview guide used with the photographs……………………………………………………….330
Appendix B: Participant biographical information………………………………………………………………….331
Appendix C: Camera instructions……………………………………………………………………………………………332
Appendix D: Personal network diagram used in the pilot studies…………………………………………..333
Appendix E: Adverts used in local shops and village magazines……………………………………………..334
Appendix F: Information sheet and consent form for participants…………………………………………336
Appendix G: The research process………………………………………………………………………………………...338
Appendix H: Table of participant details………………………………………………………………………………..339
Appendix I: An example of the development of a category from codes………………………………...340
Appendix J: Clustering to visualise initial links between categories………………………………………..344
Appendix K: An example of an evolving grounded theory memo…………………………………………..345
Appendix L: Example of a narrative memo and themes developed for Mr Harris…………………..348
Appendix M: Photo Reproduction Rights Form………………………………………………………………………362
Appendix N: Pen pictures of the research collaborators………………………………………………………..364

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Chapter 1
Introduction

‘A man’s age is something impressive, it sums up his life: maturity reached slowly and against
many obstacles, illnesses cured, griefs and despairs overcome, and unconscious risks taken;
maturity formed through so many desires, hopes, regrets, forgotten things, loves. A man’s age
represents a fine cargo of experiences and memories.’
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in Wartime Writings 1939-1944

This thesis offers an exploratory study of the everyday lives, social worlds and relationships of
older men who live alone and the way experiences and behaviours are interpreted through
interactions. It seems paradoxical that living alone during the earlier stages of the life course is
viewed as ‘exercising choice’ but by the later stages of the life course, living alone is considered
by policy makers as more of a problem situation. Assuming that living alone in later life is
necessarily a negative experience appears too uncritically accepted. It is possible that
maintaining an independent household is more of an indication of successful ageing, a current
policy goal, and a manifestation of autonomy rather than indicating disengagement (Victor,
2005). However, there are also growing pressures on older people to remain independent, as
encouraged by UK social policy. For men, in particular, the masculine trait of independence may
already influence their help-seeking behaviour and further pressure to be independent may
have negative implications for older men living alone (Smith, Braunack-Mayer, Wittert, & Warin,
2007). However, the situation of men living alone is rarely researched and so unlikely to be well-
understood and its assumed problematic nature remains largely unchallenged. The thesis
therefore seeks to examine individual men and their experiences within families and local
communities as well as the influence of structural factors upon these experiences.
Britain is ageing. Between 1971 and 2009, the proportion of the population aged 75 and over
increased from 4.7% to 7.8% and is projected to rise to 11.7% by 2031. The UK averages mask
considerable variations across the UK. The median age of residents in individual local authority
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areas varied from 27 years to 48 years, according to figures available from 1992 (Office for
National Statistics, 2011), with consequent implications for local planning of service provision.
The growth rates in the 75 years and over group of the population differ by gender as life
expectancy for men is increasing at a faster rate than for women. Thus, in 1971, 32% of
residents aged 75 and over were men and that is predicted to rise to 44% in 2031 (Office for
National Statistics, 2011).
Interest in older people and ageing has, therefore, increased in recent years. There has also
been a heightened interest in men, in particular problematic men, absent fathers and
fatherhood (C. Lewis & O'Brien, 1987; O'Brien & Shemilt, 2003). Families are changing and being
redefined due to increased life expectancy, changing gender roles, decreasing family size, family
breakdown and evolving patterns of work (Wilton & Davey, 2006) but there has not been much
explicit interest in the role of older men within families.
Interest in the social worlds of older people has also increased as this sector of the population
continues to grow (Victor, Scambler, & Bond, 2009) but advances in the understanding of the
lives of older people mostly refer to women or genderless older people (Arber, Davidson, &
Ginn, 2003b; Arber & Ginn, 1993; Thompson, 1994b). There are some notable exceptions, such
as the ESRC Growing Older Programme (Dean, 2003), Kosberg and Kaye’s (1997) edited book
Elderly men: special problems and professional challenges, Older Men’s Lives edited by
Thompson (1994b) and By Himself: the older man’s experience of widowhood by van den
Hoonaard (2010), all of which recognise that ageing is a gendered experience and therefore men
are as worthy of study as women in later life (Russell, 2007). It is also important to acknowledge
that as well as differences between men and women, there are differences within groups of
men and women (Arber, Davidson, & Ginn, 2003a).
Men’s social relationships have often been viewed as deficient, problematic and predominantly
work based, potentially leading to a lack of meaningful relationships in later life. Cancian (1987,
p.74) has suggested that ‘men’s behaviour is measured with a feminine ruler’ when it comes to
relationships because the majority of research has explored the quantity and quality of women’s
social relationships in later life. Viewing older men’s social relationships from a female
perspective cannot adequately explore the kind of relationships that older men value and enjoy,
but the assumption that men have inferior, and not just different, relationships has gone largely
unchallenged.
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Hearn (1995) has argued that the older a man becomes, the weaker he becomes both physically
and socially. Whereas that may always have been the case, this state of decline would only have
been endured for a short period in the past. Connell (2005) maintains that masculinities are
differentiated and stand against one another in relations of power, establishing a hegemony of
masculinity. With increased life expectancy, men have a much longer period in a state of
potential threat to hegemonic masculinity. Old age can, therefore, become a difficult time for
men to negotiate but little is known about strategies used to negotiate possible tensions
between masculinities and dependency in later life.
With a narrowing gap in life expectancy between men and women, the lived experiences of
older men merit greater research attention (Arber, Davidson, et al., 2003a; Soule, Babb,
Evandrou, Balchin, & Zealey, 2005). In particular, the gendered experiences of men, due to their
early socialisation, may influence social networks in later life, if living alone. The work place, as a
public sphere, has been defined as an accepted place for the articulation of masculine
friendship, as opposed to the private and domestic sphere which is the accepted place for
female bonding (D. Chambers, 2006). This pattern of friendship formed earlier in life is likely to
continue to have an influence on the meaning of friendship later in life (Arber, Davidson, et al.,
2003a) as social network strategies of men are hard to separate from their socially constructed
roles (Fennell & Davidson, 2003). Failure to consider the diversity across historical time, social
structure and within gender, has led to global differences being presented in the literature:
women have ‘good’ expressive friendships and men have ‘inferior’ instrumental friendships
(Cancian, 1987; Nardi, 1992). Using such an expressive-instrumental distinction, women are
considered more adept at forming social and friendship ties than men. Men are considered
more likely to form ‘task oriented’ ties or friendships (D. Scott, 1996, p.233), a type of friendship
which may be harder to maintain or initiate when older and frailer.
Furthermore, older men’s relationships, if viewed solely as ‘task-oriented’, may be overlooked,
misinterpreted and even under-supported. There may be relationships which are important to
men but not ‘conventional’ in the sense that researchers have not usually counted them as
important, particularly in studies of social support networks. One example would be
acquaintances. Morgan (2009) has suggested that people we meet every day, people who are
not friends but neither are they strangers, can become part of our social network. For older men
who live alone, acquaintances may offer significant contributions to their lives in terms of
continuity and familiarity within a neighbourhood, or even farther afield, although such
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