Abstract
In our academic endeavour to explore all aspects of the lives of people as they age, we at the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender (CRAG) feel there are some important gaps, notably that of older men, especially those who live alone in later life. This chapter reports the findings from a major research project with which members of CRAG were involved. This was a UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded study, which compared the health and social networks of 85 older men by marital status. The men in this study were more than the age of 65, living independently in the community and were either married, widowed, divorced/separated or never married. Of the 85 interviewed, 55 lived alone. We found that despite failing health and reduced social and economic status, regardless of marital status and changed living circumstances, the men maintained a strong sense of masculine identity. This sense of masculinity enabled them to keep control of their lives, giving them the resilience to cope with ageing. We concluded that sometimes this adherence to a male identity was detrimental to their health and social networks, especially those without a spouse, because they were reluctant to seek help. Our principal aim was to identify nodal points at which intervention could be offered and accepted thus informing policy and practice for students, health professionals and educators, and indeed for older men, their friends and families.
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Notes
- 1.
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Growing Older Programme: ‘Older men, their social worlds and healthy lifestyles’ Project code L480254033. http://www.esrc.ac.uk/my-esrc/grants/L480254033/readwww.esrc.ac.uk/my-esrc/grants/L480254033/read.
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Acknowledgements
This chapter substantially draws attention on previous publications generated from the project by the author and her colleagues Professor Sara Arber, Mr. Tom Daly and Dr. Robert Meadows. I would like to acknowledge their contribution and thank them very sincerely for their permission to use the material.
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Davidson, K. (2013). Older Men in the Community, a United Kingdom Perspective. In: Phellas, C. (eds) Aging in European Societies. International Perspectives on Aging, vol 6. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8345-9_11
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