Daily Engagement
Risk Factors for Elder Abuse in Arabic-speaking Communities in Toronto: Multi Stakeholder Perspectives
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Souraya Sidani, Sepali Guruge, Mari Kozak, Sepali Guruge
A range of post-migration risk factors contribute to the vulnerability of older immigrants to elder abuse. This paper captures the findings of a recently completed phase one of a study that aims to identify key risk factors that contribute to elder abuse in Arabic-speaking communities in the Great Toronto Area, and relevant strategies to address elder abuse. A total of ninety-seven older women, older men, family members, community leaders, and service providers took part in separate group interviews in this mixed-methods study. An intersectionality framework guided the data collection and analysis to capture the diversity as well as the shared beliefs and values, across Arabic-speaking communities. Older immigrants women identified knowledge of English; older immigrant men identified social isolation; family members identified length of time in Canada; community leaders identified racialized, cultural, and ethnic group status, and service providers identified income, as the most important risk factors contributing to elder abuse. Quantitative data show financial dependence, language differences, and social isolation alongside ageism and racism as key risk factors. The different stakeholder group perspectives provide a comprehensive understanding of risk factors for elder abuse in this community. Such an understanding can be used to design multi-level, multi-sector interventions to address elder abuse.
Understanding Older Adults Gender Differences Regarding the Effect of One’s Self-Perception on the Use of Technologies
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lise Van De Beeck, Martine Lagacé
In this digital era, older adults are the target of pervasive ageist stereotypes depicting them as less capable of adapting to and using new technologies. Previous studies have suggested that one’s self-perception regarding health-related and life satisfaction along with intrinsic motivation to use new technologies may partly counteract the negative effect of age on the use of new technologies. However, the influence of gender regarding those behaviours has yet to be explored. A total of 3075 Canadians (1579 men and 1496 women) aged 60 years old and above participated in an online survey evaluating their use of technologies. The sample was drawn from an international longitudinal study comprised of seven countries. Path analyses with multi-group effects were conducted to evaluate gender differences as for the mediation effect of life satisfaction on age and health satisfaction and the variety of usage of mobile phone and internet. Findings suggest that higher life satisfaction partially mediates the effect of aging and health-related satisfaction in using new technologies. Moreover, gender had an overall effect, with a stronger relationship between age and life satisfaction in men. Life satisfaction also had an indirect effect on the use of internet in men but not in women. Given the close relationship between one self-perception and motivation, older adults reporting positive subjective health and high levels of life satisfaction might feel more capable and motivated to diversify their usage of technologies. Gender has an important role in those links since life satisfaction only affects internet use in men.
Aging and Intersectionality as a Critical Standpoint: Public Consultations and the Illusion of Digital Inclusion
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Constance Lafontaine, Kim Sawchuk
Researchers in communication studies have critically examined the push towards e-governance and its differential impacts on sectors of the population (Clement and Shade, 2007; Eubanks, 2018). In this paper, we examine recent attempts by the Canadian federal government to regulate the telecommunications industry and its deployment of online platforms to solicit public participation to inform policy-making. We argue that in the current conjuncture (Slack, 1996) these attempts at inclusion by digital means-only render absent the experiences of those older (Canadian) adults who are most in need of regulatory policies that promote accessibility, affordability and fairness in a digital world. Indeed, in a society such as ours where access to the digital world is unevenly distributed along the lines of age, education, literacy and income, consultations conducted online tend to over-represent those older adults who are socially and digitally-included (Sawchuk & Lafontaine, Forthcoming). In this paper, we discuss how community-based research practices have taught us that “age” is not simply as sociological variable, but how age and aging, conceived of intersectionally, may act as a critical standpoints (Harding, 1986, 2004; Haraway, 1988) to interrogate the techno-optimistic promises of governments. We underscore the role that researchers can play in developing complementary, alternative methodological approaches to involve older citizens in media policy-making to create social change in networked societies (Castells, 2001). In our present context, taking aging into account challenges discourses that assume that online consultations are ipso facto effective means to include the public in defining public policy.
