Gender Differences in Social Support, Loneliness, and Isolation among Old Age Citizens

Abstract

The present paper attempted to explore the impact of gender on social support, social isolation and loneliness (social and emotional) among senior citizens. In order to assess the study constructs 6-Item (short) De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale (1985), 6-item (short) scale developed by Hawthorne (2006) and, Social Support Scale developed by Malik (2002) were used. Standardized back translation procedure was used for the translation of the measures into Urdu. Purposive convenient sampling technique was used to draw the sample of 500 senior citizens from both urban and rural areas of the various districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The age of the participants ranged between 60 to 90 years (M = 67.59, SD= 7.54). -test analysis revealed significant gender differences on social support and its sub constructs. Moreover results demonstrated non-significant gender differences for isolation and loneliness.