Hardiness in Older Victims of Abuse

How do they continue to negotiate their lives, contribute to their families and their communities while coping with stress, depression and too often mistreatment.

Before starting follow-up interviews with victims of elder abuse drawn from a national survey, I was anticipating what might be the emerging concepts. The ones I felt would be the best defining characters of victims were powerlessness and learned helplessness, which have been found to be a consequence of ongoing, spouse abuse (Walker, 1984). I also thought “ineffective coping” might emerge as relevant. However, the respondents surprised me. In the process of recounting their life events, the informants placed their lives in perspective. In-depth interviews allowed them to share their insights, perceptions, and fears about their lives over time. This included their experience with mistreatment. It quickly became apparent that these older people had been anything but powerless or helpless. In the interviews, the informants talked about personal and subjective experiences. They described how they had worked through life’s events and stages; they talked about coping and surviving.

It is well known that many incidences of abuse, mistreatment or victimization are not reported and that victims of elder abuse may live under these conditions for a considerable length of time. Reasons given for this situation include:

• the abused person’s dependency on the abuser in terms of the provisions of food and shelter,
• the abused person’s dependency on the abuser because the abuser may also be the caregiver and the abused person is unable to manage otherwise,
• a reluctance on the part of the abused person to report the abuse because the abuser may be a relative, spouse, or friend,
• the abused person may be threatened by the abuser and live in a state of fear, or
• the abused person may be too frail and infirm to go out to seek help.

However, there is another explanation as to how a person can endure an abusive situation. He or she has become hardy due to the extremes of life experiences. The concept of hardiness has been discussed by several authors, in a number  of different contexts, such as recovery from illness and medical interventions, “burnout” of executives, the successful adjustment of older women, to mention but a few (Kobasa, 1979). The concept of hardiness seems to apply well to victims of elder mistreatment. As revealed in interviews victims appear to have had a basic strength through which they found the capacity to cope or adapt, and this theme has emerged over the life span. Their resilience has been described in their own words, e.g., “I have been strong,” or “I was always able to manage.” Perhaps it seems inconsistent to label individuals who have been victims of elder abuse as “hardy” but, on reviewing the life experiences of these older adults, it is abundantly clear that they had a realistic perspective on life and were able to cope with “the hand dealt to them” – even when this meant enduring mistreatment.

Hardiness has been defined in a number of different ways, e.g., “A personality characteristic that enables individuals to remain healthy and adapt to illness,” due to “control” (over a situation), “commitment” (to a cause, to relationships, to goals), and “challenge” (considering difficult situations as challenges which have to be overcome).

The personality characteristic, hardiness was described by Kobasa (1979) and is seen as a capacity by which individuals remain healthy when encountering life stress. Hardy people are able to choose how they handle stress and cope with stress. Most of the research on hardiness has been conduced on male executives and lawyers (Kobasa 1979; 1982). Kobasa (1982) tested the generalizability of hardiness and stress resistance to women and found that those high in stress but low in psychiatric symptoms documented significantly more commitment to work, family, and self –components of hardiness –than those high on both stressful life events and psychiatric symptoms. Through the investigation of nurses (McCranie et al 1987; Rich 1985) attempts have been made to determine the construct validity of hardiness with females.

A number of authors have commented on the trait of hardiness, calling it “adaptedness” (Bowlby 1971), or relating it to “Grounded Theory” (Glaser and Strauss, 1967), where Wagnild (1990) referred to themes like: equanimity, perseverance, self-reliance, meaningfulness, existential aloneness, or “resilience.” Wagnild also commented on a relationship between hardiness and other concepts, including exercise, social resources, social support, self-appraisal, physiological and psychological adaptation, in connection with employee burnout. Authors differ in their views as to whether hardiness is a unitary construct or consists of three separate dimensions (control, commitment, and challenge). Resilience is another concept closely related to hardiness.

The concept of resilience refers to the collection of skills, characteristics, habits and outlooks that allow a person to remain strong, flexible and consistent despite significant challenges and stressors. To be resilient means to be able to “spring back,” “snap back,” or “hang tough” after suffering through difficult or stressful times. Resilient is more than being a survivor: it captures the process of self-righting and growth (Higgins, 1987). The concept of “hardiness” contributes to resilience when it comes to dealing with stress and examples of this are evident here. Themes identified relating to resilience are: equanimity or the ability to consider a broader range of experience, thus modulating extreme response to adversity; perseverance – “you just don’t give in, just get on with it;” and self-reliance – a belief in oneself and one’s capabilities (Wagnild 1990).

It is critical to balance the optimistic picture presented here, of a hardy resilient older individual, with the very realistic understanding that these people were abused – physically, emotionally, and financially. They survived, but the harm and the suffering are still there – whether or not they acknowledge and admit to it. People in bad situations usually try to accommodate to that which is livable. They don’t want to see or tell just how terrible things actually are. For example, one woman said of her abusing son, “He really is a good boy.” There is, of course, the danger of denial, which would not be true hardiness, but masked suffering.

Future studies with longitudinal design will be able to get a more accurate picture of the consequences of elder abuse. Pressure from community and service agencies along with grassroots organizations and senior groups has propelled the government into committing large funding resources to study elder abuse. Provincial legislation is hastily reviewing adult protective legislation. It would almost appear that we are falling into the “victimization trap” and are focusing on the problems and deficits of the older adult in dealing with maltreatment circumstances and are ignoring the evidence of adaptive strengths displayed not by “victims,” but by strong elder persons who are weathering adversity.

Each of the informants in this study reconstituted a sense of self through an ability to survive and persevere. These positive meanings and this strength can be the focus of future interaction with older abused persons. What emerged in the theme contexts was a profile of elder persons with signs of inner strength, independence, and coping resources. This is a finding which was not consistent with a predominant theme in the literature, that abused elderly are characterized by a sense of powerlessness, helplessness, dependence and victimization. This contrast and the suggestion of a new perspective on elderly abused – as being characterized by a significant degree of inner strength and hardiness is a major focus and finding of this research.

Since completing these interviews I find myself revisiting the concepts of hardiness and resilience on a frequent basis. Reading of the indescribable abuse of  Mrs. Brooke Astor by her son and learning that she was able to maintain her ageless spirit and humour despite what the prosecution has revealed as “hypocrisy, cynicism and sheer rapaciousness” is a lesson in survival. People close to Mrs. Astor described her as “resilient” in her annus horribilus (Vanity Fair, October 2008).

Other examples of resilience and hardiness traits are seen in the ever-increasing number of Canadian grandmothers who are raising their grandchildren with little government assistance. Even in the face of poverty, their own health and that of their grandchildren, the grandmothers are able to cope, to love and nurture these children who come with many challenges and issues. These women personify the concept of hardiness and resilience. There are numerous examples that demonstrate how older people have used their personal strengths and social resources to effectively address their situations. This would suggest that a most effective area of social intervention for the elderly would be to promote, to help develop, and to reinforce these strengths and resources, i.e., to foster and support hardiness and resilience.

The clinical implications of the hardiness concept in relation to elder abuse is exciting and holds promise for future empirical support.

references

• Bowlby, J, (1971). Attachment and loss , Vol.1. New York: Basic Books Inc.
• Glassen, B.G. & Strauss A.L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory . Chicago, Aldine Publishing Co.
• Higgins, G. (1987). Resilient Adults: Overcoming a Cruel Past. San Francisco. Jossey-Bass Publishing.
• Kobasa, S. (1979). Stressful life events, personality and health: An inquiry into hardiness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(1), 1-11.
• Kobasa, S. (1982). Commitment and coping in stress resistance among lawyers . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42(4), 707-717.
• McCraine, E., Lambert, V, Lambert, C. (1987). Work, stress, hardiness and burn out among hospital staff nurses . Nursing Research, 36, 374-378.
• Podnieks, E. (1995). A New Perspective on Elder Abuse: Hardiness in victims . University of Toronto.
• Rich, V.L. (1985). An investigation into modification of personality hardiness in nurse managers . Unpublished manuscript. University of Pittsburgh, P.A.
• Wagnild, H. (1990). Resilence among older women . Image, 22(4), 252-255.
• Walker, L.E. (1984). The battered woman syndrome . New York: Springer Publishing