{"title":"Emergent Themes with Implications from a Qualitative Thematic Analysis of Psychological Well-Being Among 23 Older Ghanaians","authors":"Paul Alhassan Issahaku","doi":"10.1007/s12126-024-09557-w","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Available statistics show that the population of older adults in Ghana increased from 200,000 in 1960 to two million in 2021, with females comprising 57% of this population. This increase in the size of the older Ghanaian population has research, policy, and practice implications. Qualitative research has rarely explored the psychological health of older Ghanaians by paying attention to the emotions and feelings they experience and the reasons they give for those emotions and feelings. The current study aimed to fill the gap by exploring emotions and feelings that underlay the psychological well-being of older persons in Ghana and the subjective reasons behind their feelings. Twenty-three adults aged 60 years plus (14 male vs 9 female) provided interview data that were analyzed thematically, and psychological well-being perspectives provided a framework to make sense of the data. The findings show that participants’ psychological well-being belongs to three subthemes of psychological functioning: high positive functioning; low negative functioning; and high negative functioning. These subthemes translated into three main themes: pride of conquest; being older can be depressing; and, living with regret, respectively. Overall, the findings suggest that participants’ psychological well-being is a confluence of flourishing mental health and depression. It is concluded that older Ghanaians experience a mixture of positive and negative emotions and feelings, and, therefore, a blend of good mental health and depression. One reason for positive psychological well-being is that older adults are happy about living longer, and satisfied with what they have accomplished. They are also proud of their continued social contribution, and look forward to health and happiness in retirement. However, fear of death and worries over what the future holds for children, despair over the debilitating effects of sickness, abusive experience, poverty, and the shame of being accused of witchcraft and ostracized, among others are reasons for depression in this population. The research and practice implications of these findings are outlined.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51665,"journal":{"name":"Ageing International","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ageing International","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12126-024-09557-w","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"GERONTOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Available statistics show that the population of older adults in Ghana increased from 200,000 in 1960 to two million in 2021, with females comprising 57% of this population. This increase in the size of the older Ghanaian population has research, policy, and practice implications. Qualitative research has rarely explored the psychological health of older Ghanaians by paying attention to the emotions and feelings they experience and the reasons they give for those emotions and feelings. The current study aimed to fill the gap by exploring emotions and feelings that underlay the psychological well-being of older persons in Ghana and the subjective reasons behind their feelings. Twenty-three adults aged 60 years plus (14 male vs 9 female) provided interview data that were analyzed thematically, and psychological well-being perspectives provided a framework to make sense of the data. The findings show that participants’ psychological well-being belongs to three subthemes of psychological functioning: high positive functioning; low negative functioning; and high negative functioning. These subthemes translated into three main themes: pride of conquest; being older can be depressing; and, living with regret, respectively. Overall, the findings suggest that participants’ psychological well-being is a confluence of flourishing mental health and depression. It is concluded that older Ghanaians experience a mixture of positive and negative emotions and feelings, and, therefore, a blend of good mental health and depression. One reason for positive psychological well-being is that older adults are happy about living longer, and satisfied with what they have accomplished. They are also proud of their continued social contribution, and look forward to health and happiness in retirement. However, fear of death and worries over what the future holds for children, despair over the debilitating effects of sickness, abusive experience, poverty, and the shame of being accused of witchcraft and ostracized, among others are reasons for depression in this population. The research and practice implications of these findings are outlined.
期刊介绍:
As a quarterly peer-reviewed journal that has existed for over three decades, Ageing International serves all professionals who deal with complex ageing issues. The journal is dedicated to improving the life of ageing populations worldwide through providing an intellectual forum for communicating common concerns, exchanging analyses and discoveries in scientific research, crystallizing significant issues, and offering recommendations in ageing-related service delivery and policy making. Besides encouraging the submission of high-quality research and review papers, Ageing International seeks to bring together researchers, policy analysts, and service program administrators who are committed to reducing the ''implementation gap'' between good science and effective service, between evidence-based protocol and culturally suitable programs, and between unique innovative solutions and generalizable policies. For significant issues that are common across countries, Ageing International will organize special forums for scholars and investigators from different disciplines to present their regional perspectives as well as to provide more comprehensive analysis. The editors strongly believe that such discourse has the potential to foster a wide range of coordinated efforts that will lead to improvements in the quality of life of older persons worldwide. Abstracted and Indexed in:
ABI/INFORM, Academic OneFile, Academic Search, CSA/Proquest, Current Abstracts, EBSCO, Ergonomics Abstracts, Expanded Academic, Gale, Google Scholar, Health Reference Center Academic, OCLC, PsychINFO, PsyARTICLES, SCOPUS, Social Science Abstracts, and Summon by Serial Solutions.