The Effects of Family Support on the Life Satisfaction of Elderly with Disabilities

가족의 지지가 장애노인의 삶의 만족도에 미치는 영향

The purpose of study is to examine the effects of family support on the life satisfaction of elderly with disabilities and provide a ground necessary to improve it. Research was conducted on 167 elderly with hearing, visual and physical disabilities aged over 60 who were living in Seoul and Pusan. Telephone survey, sign language and interview, in accordance with types of disability, were adopted to collect data effectively. That is telephone survey was used for elderly with visual impairment whereas face-to-face interview for physical impairment and sign language for hearing impairment by volunteers. Collected data were analyzed, using hierarchical regression analysis. This study utilized two different models, direct effect model and buffering effect of social support in order to examine the effects of familial support on the life satisfaction of elderly with disabilities. Research findings suggest that the level of life satisfaction appeared to be low in general among elderly with disabilities and emotional family support exerted a positive effect on life satisfaction. In addition, it is empirically supported that emotional family support buffered the negative effect of economic limitations on life satisfaction. In other words, the effects of economic limitations as stress factor decreased with the increase in the frequency of emotional support, however, the level of life satisfaction decreased at a mercy of the stress factor of economic limitations with the decrease in the frequency of emotional support. Finally, this paper attempted to provide some alternatives to effectively improve life satisfaction among elderly with disabilities based on empirical findings.