New research offers a reason why your ideal of a happy, picture-perfect holiday season sometimes doesn’t match what actually occurs.
We have certain expectations for every partnership. All of us desire to have allies in our lives. Friends we can rely on in times of need. A conversation partner. individuals who get us. Somebody we can rely on. Friends with whom we can enjoy fun activities.
The Social Relationship Expectations Framework, the team’s theory, contends that older people might have certain relationship expectations that have been overlooked.
An analysis of aging in Myanmar from 2018 to 2019 suggested that the causes of loneliness may be more complicated than first appears. The researchers initially felt that since people are so linked and live in such a close-knit community, they wouldn’t typically experience loneliness. People have large families and are frequently in the same vicinity. Why might someone feel alone?
The way that our relationship expectations alter as we age is something that attempts to prevent loneliness have been overlooked. In our 70s, for example, we may not seek the same things from social interactions that we did in our 30s.
Two age-specific expectancies that haven’t been considered were found by the researchers. Older people, for one, want to be appreciated. They want others to pay attention to them, be interested in what they have to say, and take something away from their blunders. to understand what they’ve been through and the challenges they’ve faced.
They also want to give back to others and their community, pass on traditions or skills and engage in volunteer work, caregiving, and other worthwhile pursuits.
While research has largely ignored them, finding ways to meet these expectations as we age can go a long way toward preventing loneliness in later life.
The fact that older people’s labor and contributions are frequently overlooked by conventional economic indexes could be part of the explanation for the omission.
According to a 2016 World Health Organization poll conducted in 57 countries, 60% of participants indicated that older people are not treated with respect.
Leaders from around the world started raising awareness about loneliness as a public health problem even before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018, Britain became the first nation to appoint a minister to combat loneliness. Japan did likewise in 2021.
Loneliness is more than just an emotion because it has an impact on health. Among other health problems, chronic loneliness has been associated with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. Some researchers claim that the risks are comparable to or even greater than those of smoking and being overweight.
The researchers think that by better understanding the factors that contribute to loneliness, we might be able to address it more successfully.
News Mania Desk
