Stressful life events, family support and successful ageing in the Biafran War generation

Abstract

Objectives: Although the developing countries contribute substantially to the population of the elderly, little is known about ageing in populous countries like Nigeria, particularly the Biafran War generation (BWG). Some of those who witnessed the Biafran War (also known as Nigerian Civil War) as children are well into late adulthood, while the majority of this pre-war/wartime cohort who are in their golden years will enter into later life in less than a decade from now. The aim of the present research was to examine the role of stressful life events and family support in successful ageing of the BWG.

Method: Data were collected using a self-administered survey completed by 453 members of the BWG who were ≥45 years. The survey included measures such as the Successful Ageing Inventory, Life Events Inventory, and family support subscale of Family Dynamics Scale. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses of the study.

Results: The three dimensions of stressful life events (health events, interpersonal events and work-related/financial events) had moderate negative relationships with successful ageing. Family support was moderately and positively associated with successful ageing. For the moderation hypotheses, family support was a significant moderator of only the relationship between work-related stressful life events and successful ageing, especially for the <65 years subgroup.

Conclusion: Growing old can be a very positive experience for both the individual and the society. Family support provides social protection for older people, in the face of difficult socio-economic circumstances.

Keywords:

• Biafran War
• family support
• life events
• successful ageing

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Charles T. Orjiakor of the Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for his useful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.