Background: Loneliness is a psychological problem which mostly happens in the elderly, in which they feel disconnected, marginalized, and isolated from others. This occurs as the elderly feel that they are different from others. The feeling of loneliness often occurs at the time when the elderly’s spouse or close friends left them. It is also due to the lack of family support. A period of elderly can cause different levels of loneliness, and can occur because of the lack of family support which includes informational, appraisal, instrumental and emotional supports. The better family supports given to the elderly will cause them better feeling of being more noticed by the family. Therefore, the feeling of loneliness can be minimized. Interviews in the preliminary study showed that 4 out of 5 elderly stated that they often felt left out, lonely, and unnoticed by others. About 60% of them also said that they received very less support from their families. 

Objective : The general objective of this study is to identify if there is a correlation of the family support and the level of loneliness in elderly at the Pengayoman Christian Home care service of Semarang.The specific objective is first to determine the characteristics of the elderly; such as age, recent education, and sex at the Pengayoman Christian Home care service of Semarang; Second, to figure out the description of family support for the elderly at the Pengayoman Christian Home care service of Semarang; and Third, to figure out the level of loneliness in the elderly at the Pengayoman Christian Home care service of Semarang.

Method: This study is an analytical survey (non-experimental) with cross sectional approach. The data were collected by questionnaires from 52 respondents taken by simple purposive sampling. The data obtained were statistically analyzed using chi-square formula.

Result and discussion: The results of analysis showed that out of 52 respondents, most of them were of old age (67.3%), female (88.5%), and obtained education of elementary school (55.8%). The study also showed that 67.3% of respondents did not have support from their families, while the remaining (32.7%) had their family support. A total of 30.8% respondents did not feel any loneliness, 30.8% felt mild loneliness, 19.2% felt moderate loneliness, and 19.2% felt severe loneliness.

Conclusion: There was a significant relationship between family support and the level of loneliness in the elderly (p value <0.05).

 Keywords: family support, level of loneliness, elderly.

 

References: 53 (2000-2013)