https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1127-3755
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ABSTRACT
Informed by existing gaps in the research of elder abuse and neglect (EAN) outcomes and very limited knowledge from Central-European cultural contexts, this paper analyzes the link between domestic-based EAN and three measures of well-being, namely subjective loneliness, sense of control over one’s life, and a broader outlook on life. To do this, we used recently (2022) collected EAN survey fielded among home-dwelling residents of the Czech Republic aged 65 + . The results show that there is a clear relationship between EAN and these selected outcomes. Controlling for several sets of potential modifying or confounding factors further indicates that this relationship is substantial and direct, rather than weak and indirect. Among controls, only variables related to disadvantage (health, income, dependency, history of abuse) partly account for the link between EAN and its outcomes due to their relation to both heightened risk of EAN and lower well-being.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
The dataset used for the analysis is available upon request from the authors in both original Czech and translated English version. A detailed summary of both the survey methodology and the survey results has been published in a form of research report (Reimerová et al. Citation2023 – in Czech language only). The dataset will be made publicly available in the Czech Social Science Data Archive (https://archiv.soc.cas.cz/en/) upon the completion of the project reporting period.
Ethics declaration
We declare that the project was approved by The Research Ethics Committee, an independent multidisciplinary body of Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. Respondents were provided with and signed an informed consent form before taking part in the survey. Interviewers took part in a special training course aimed at data collection on sensitive topics among older and vulnerable adults.
Notes
1. There is some promise of systematization of fragmented international evidence on EAN consequences as part of the “mega-map” project outlined by Mikton et al. (Citation2022).
2. A systematic overview of EAN consequences should be a part of a mega-map which is currently being prepared by Mikton and colleagues (Mikton et al., Citation2022).
3. The selection is informed by variables available in our dataset.
4. The ecological framework recognizes that EAN risk factors may appear at different levels – individual, contextual, community, societal (De Donder et al., Citation2016); or the micro, meso, exo, and macro levels (Schiamberg and Gans, Citation2000).
5. This is with a note that these feelings might have been preexisting as they may be more common among victims to begin with.
6. This percentage is virtually identical in a sub-sample of women which makes possible a comparison with prevalence reported in AVOW project: 24% in Austria, 32% in Belgium, 25% in Finland, 22% in Lithuania, and 39% in Portugal. This shows the Czech prevalence to be higher than in its neighboring country (Austria), but on par with Belgium (Luoma et al., Citation2011; De Donder et al., Citation2016).
7. But there was an attempt to establish monetary losses from EAN for the city of Prague (Haunerová et al., Citation2017).
8. Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) is a classification system used to divide the territory of EU and the UK. The classification system has three levels – major (level 1), basic (level 2), and small (level 3) regions. In the Czech Republic there are 14 self-governing territorial units (“regions”) classified at the NUTS 3 level.
9. Interviewers were selected from a database of the data-collection agency; the selection was guided by the aim of the broadest possible geographical coverage. All interviewers took part in a training session where they received information on the way of conduct while collecting sensitive data from older adults.
10. Mixed-mode or multimode survey design combines two or more techniques (modes) of data collection. It is assumed that combining modes is more effective in facilitating participation of hard-to-reach populations or groups that would not be willing or able to take part via one particular mode, thus promoting representativity (for more eg. Dillman et al., Citation2014).
11. The maximum number of missing values was 24 out of 30. Within the sub-sample of people who did provide at least one non-valid answer, more than 85% generated only 1–5 missing values.
12. Municipality size of 2,000 inhabitants was used to define these categories as this is the common delimiting criterion in the Czech Republic.
13. We decided not to use health as an outcome variable, mainly due to the fact that in the data it was divided only into three categories with about 50% of respondents selecting “neither bad, not good” to describe their subjective health.
14. This is, however, in no way a case for harmlessness of sporadic family violence – as seen in all models, even at the lowest prevalence, EAN already affected well-being, loneliness, and control a in substantial way.