PSYCHO-SOCIAL PROBLEMS FACED BY ELDERLY PERSONS IN URBAN POOR FAMILIES IN KARACHI: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Abstract

Elderly is a significant segment of human population. Traditionally, they had been accorded the power and respect due to their functional role in agrarian society which favored joint family system. Industrialization and urbanization favored nuclear system where the functional role of the elderly decreased, thereby lowered their power and prestige which ensued many psycho-social problems. This study is conducted to highlight such problems. The study was aimed at finding the problems under two categories, protective factors which prevent problems and risk factors which lead to problems. Twenty elderly persons were interviewed through the combination of purposive and snowball sampling. The nature of interviews was semi-structured. Interviews were recorded electronically and thereby were transcribed and coded manually. This study brought out very significant insights pertaining to the issue.