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KMID : 1023720150670010249
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Journal of Welfare for the Aged
2015 Volume.67 No. 1 p.249 ~ p.276
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Life Attitudes of the Korean Elderly at High Risk of Suicide： Focusing on the Elderly Beneficiaries of National Basic Livelihood in Seoul, South Korea
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Lee Hyeon-Jung
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Abstract
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I conduct anthropological research on the life attitudes of the elderly at high risk of suicide to understand the concrete life contexts of high rates of elderly suicide in South Korea. For this study, every week I participated in the project of lunchbox delivery for the underprivileged elderly in a seniors’ welfare center located in northern Seoul from February 2013 to June 2014. In my regular visits, I observed concrete life conditions and diverse aspects of everyday life among the total of 10 male and female elderly who are aged, poor, and sick. I also conducted in-depth interviews with these persons about their different attitudes toward their elderly life. Research results find five different types of life attitudes：resigned acceptance, anxiety and powerlessness, depression and despair, relative satisfaction, and continuing struggle. Research highlights that the different types of the elderly``s life attitudes are closely related to their different life experiences, particularly during their mid-life. One``s mid-life experience of sickness or accidents affects his or her life attitude in later life. This study also supports the existing statistical finding that depression is the most important risk factor in elderly suicide.
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KEYWORD
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elderly suicide, sickness, poverty, elderly life, life attitude, anthropology, qualitative study
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