NCJ Number
219954
Journal
Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect Volume: 18 Issue: 2/3 Dated: 2006 Pages: 105-121
Date Published
2006
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Twenty-five Turkish women and 14 Turkish men provided examples of elder abuse (adult child against an elderly parent) according to levels of severity of the abuse (extreme, moderate, and mild).
Abstract
The most common examples of extreme elder abuse were neglect, particularly physical neglect, followed by physical abuse. Physical abuse was placed only in the category of extreme abuse. The belief in Turkish culture that raising the hand to a parent is the greatest sin would explain this finding. Various forms of psychological aggression were most often mentioned as forms of moderate and mild elder abuse. Verbal abuse (e.g., raising one's voice to a parent) was the most often mentioned example for psychological abuse. This is also considered a serious sin in Turkish culture. Financial abuse was mentioned by only a few respondents. In the Turkish culture, financial matters are considered private and an inappropriate topic of discussion. The only significant gender difference in the responses was that compared to women, men listed more instances of verbal aggression as examples of extreme abuse. A positive correlation was found between the age of the respondent and the number of abandonment examples considered an extreme form of abuse. A total of 68 Turkish men and women responded to a larger survey on International Perspectives on Family Violence and Abuse (Mally-Morrison, 2004). Out of this original sample, only 25 women and 14 men chose to complete the questionnaire section on elder abuse, which consisted of questions about an adult child's abusive behavior toward an older parent. Their responses were analyzed for the current study. 1 table and 22 references