Looking at frailty through the lens of ethnicity, a phenomenological study of elderly women living alone in the community

grantor: University of TorontoThe purpose of this thesis is to understand how ethnic background frames the experience of frailty for elderly women living alone in the community using a phenomenological approach. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with women who were seventy-five years of age and older from Polish-Catholic, Anglo-Saxon, and African-Caribbean ethnic backgrounds. All of the women lived in the greater Metropolitan Toronto area and received home care assistance for three to twelve hours each week. The major finding of this study was that the onset of frailty was experienced as an affront to established identity, and in order to maintain a sense of continuity with respect to this established identity, the women engaged in various strategies. These strategies involved affirming a sense of personal competence through adhering to a predictable daily routine and reframing abilities, and incorporating new aspects of the self through restructuring roles, negotiating shifting relationships, and altering expectations.M.Sc