Elder abuse in southwest Nigeria: Do age group and religious affiliation play any impact?

Abstract

In the past few years, concerns about the elder abuse in Nigeria have continued to receive increased research attention among social scientists include: psychologists, counsellors and gerontologists. This increased research attention was due to the frequent reports of elder abuse in the society. The continuous occurrence of this social menace prompted this study that aimed to investigate the role of age and religion on elder abuse among elderly persons in Osun state, Nigeria. A descriptive survey was adopted to select three hundred and ninety two (392) respondents with mean age of 70.77 and S.D of 6.33. The study found that age group did not influence elder abuse F(2, 389) = 2.747; p>.05). But, religious affiliation was found to influence elder abuse F(2, 386) = 14.141; p< 0.05. The study concluded that only religious affiliation has significant influence on elder abuse in Osun state. The study therefore, recommended that religious leaders should adopt a psychological approach, possibly in form of counselling or religious teaching, as part of their religious doctrines, to educate members of their congregations on the need to respect and value every elderly persons in the society, as this could help to drastically reduce the persistence incidents of elder abuse in the society.