The Feeling of Insecurity Among the Elderly: Between Environmental Changes and Individual Fragility

Abstract

The literature frequently argues that the feeling of insecurity might be greater among the elderly than in other population groups. Based on results of a qualitative study which consisted of 51 interviews with people aged between 70 and 92 years old, this paper proposes to approach the feeling of insecurity from the actors’ perspective. This allows us to take into account the perception of the elderly in order to dispose of the age-related vision that tends to erase the effects of fragility due to aging.

Keywords

• elderly
• insecurity
• strategies
• vulnerability
• weakening