Going Solo: future research priorities based on the outcomes from an online survey

Dr Trish Hafford-Letchfield, Reader in Social WorkNicky Lambert, Associate Professor Mental HealthSchool of Health and Education

Who are SOLO women?

• Women over 55 years • who are non-partnered

and have never had children

• who are living in the UK

WHY:

Deconstruction of ageing experiences so as to understand how policy and practices aiming to support successful ageing might need to develop and respond.

Researching Solo Women

• Significance of relationship status within policy and framing of the design and provision of quality care and support

• Capturing/describing contemporary forms of relationality, intimacy and personal life (Edwards et al, 2012; Hicks, 2011).

• Research with older women - main points of departure within ageing studies (Maynard et al, 2008)

1). Obligation not to minimize the real social and economic difficulties that a significant number of older women might face.

2). Explore the more positive aspects of later life and how these might be facilitated and supported.

Themes for research from the literature Less certain terminology and unpredictable life course

3 risks in changing demography:

1) Economic2) Cultural3) Personal

wellbeing

Limitations of methodological approaches What critiques are useful/ adapt or develop concepts, measures, theoretical frameworks and research designs to investigate?

Balancing different concerns or multiple roles and comparing profiles

• ‘Discretionary’ or inessential ways they spend their time, idea that these experiences may contribute more to their wellbeing as they are more positive experiences.

• Overall invisibility in research• ‘Normalisation’ - searching for and describing

patterns – could be around expectations, experiences, reflecting on needs. Subject positions, ideological dilemmas, metaphors. Engler et al (2011)

(McNair, 2008)

Sexuality/Sexual identity and

Intimacy

Economic & material well-being

Social Capital

Education/ Employment/Retire

ment/

Agency & Impact on cumulative

social structures

Demography and ageing

Health & Social Care

SOLO WOMEN:Some themes from the Literature

Demographic observations

• Emerging demographic, sizeable segment of the workforce, new global demographic tied to widespread diffusion of individualism, women's economic empowerment

• Aging workforce, delayed and less linear and less standardized life transitions

• Less stable intimate relationships (Bauman, 2003)

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS - Isolating this population within the Household Panel data. Many of the factors that women in national surveysare defined by include marriage and children not relevantto the experience of these women.

Online SURVEY using purposive sampling to identify and capture some of the key characteristics of solo womenand to consult them on the key research questions that should be pursued further.

The final stage of the scoping study will involve face to face individual INTERVIEWS gathering qualitative data on the issues and experiences of those solo women completing the survey and through outreach work into more hard to reach groups where solo women are not easily identified.

Our study of SOLO women?

Statistical

Analysis

Survey Social Media

Qualitative

Interviews

Definition of ‘Singles’ – Living alone in the household. Adults interviewed every 12/12 either face-to-face or over the phone using Computer Assisted Interviewing (CAI). Wave 1 – 3 Nov 2009 – Nov 2012

Household Panel Data Survey

• Online survey n=113 April-Aug 2014• Outreach to community organisations

using hardcopy – ongoing n=12• 23 Questions – mixture of data

(demography, rating, qualitative)• 29 women have volunteered for follow

up interviews by phone or face-to-face

Going Solo Survey

Some women felt the pressure of having to

make DECISIONS without support; others noted the

weight of having to undertake the TASKS of

everyday living solo.

This experience impacted on some women

PSYCHOLOGICALLY as a lack of confidence and in others as a

triggered BEHAVIOURS ranging from avoidance of difficult situations to binge-eating

This was experienced distinct as a desire for EMOTIONAL and/or for PHYSICAL closeness and as the act of being LOVING TO OTHERS and RECEIVING LOVE in return.

Some women experienced this as SOCIAL ISOLATION

others noted it as a PRACTICAL

REALITY.

Important to note that the experience of loneliness was a FLUCTUATING STATE; it was exacerbated by CIRCUMSTANTIAL factors like illness and SITUATIONAL ones like going on holiday or eating out.

This theme subdivided into the expression of STIGMA FROM OTHERS particularly damaging was the idea that they might be

PITIED and attitudes which could indicate SELF-STIGMA.

Visceral descriptions of the experience of loneliness, as ‘dead time’ or as ‘cold and darkness’.

Formed a theme in terms of motivation to connect socially and to ‘justify’ seeking company

IMPACTS

FLUCTUATING STATE

ISOLATION

RESPONSIBILITY STIGMA

ACTIVITIES

METAPHOR

IMTIMACY

SOLO WOMEN’S EXPERIENCE OF LONELINESS:

THEMATIC ANALYSIS

https://twitter.com/search?q=%40WomenGoingSolo&src=typd

What would be the questions for exploring the learning needs and experiences of solo women?

Any Questions?

References• Bauman, Z. (2003) Liquid love. Cambridge, Malden, Polity Press• Darab, S., Hartman, Y., (2013) Understanding Single Older women’s

Invisibility in Housing Issues in Australia. Housing, Theory and Society. 30 (4), pp 348-367.

• Edwards, R., Ribbens McCarthy, J., and Gillies, V. (2012) ‘The politicis of concepts; family and its (putative) replacements’ British Journal of Sociology, vol 63, no 4, pp 730-746.

• Hicks, S. (2011) Lesbian, Gay and Queer Parenting: Families, Intimacies, Genealogies. Basingstoke; Palgrave Macmillan.

• Hicks, S. (2014) ‘Deconstructing the family’ in Rethinking anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive theories for social work practice. C.Cocker and T.Hafford-Letchfield (eds). Basingstoke, Palgrave

• .McNair, S. (2008) Inquiry into the future for lifelong learning - Demography and Lifelong Learning IFLL Thematic Paper 1. Leicester, NIACE.