Centre for Policy on Ageing



The older battered woman: wives and mothers compared
Author(s)	Rosalie S Wolf, Karl A Pillemer
Journal title	Journal of Mental Health and Aging, vol 3, no 3, Winter 1997
Pages	pp 325-336
Keywords	Elder abuse ; Older women ; Wives ; Mother ; Family relationships ; United States of America.
Annotation	The aim of this US study was to examine the differences between cases involving older wives and mothers as victims of abuse, neglect and exploitation. The sample consisted of 73 older women, 22 of whom were victimised by their husbands and 51 by their adult children. Findings showed that the wives were more likely to be dependent on their husbands for some instrumental activities of daily living (ADLs); the adult children were likely to be dependent on their mothers for housing and financial support. Husbands were more likely to use physical violence against their wives than adult children against their mothers. The verbal aggression shown by adult children towards their mothers were perceived to be more serious than similar acts by husbands towards their wives. The authors suggest that using the services of the shelter movement may be useful in dealing with the dependency of the victims, however, mothers may be more reassured if they knew that their adult children were receiving help. (AKM).
Accession Number	CPA-98070404 A
Classmark	QNT: BD: SNW: SRM: DS:SJ: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.