ABSTRACT

Background: Human beings are naturally social beings. As people age, attachments or linkages to different people in the environment suffices the social needs of every individual. Social support is one of the means of sufficing these social needs. Every human being goes through the natural process of aging. Many theories focus on the aging process and one of which is Eric Eriksons Psychosocial Theory. The psychosocial task assigned to old age, as per Erikson, is Integrity vs. Despair. Many studies are done to examine elderly holistically; however, studies pertaining to the direct role of social support to the elderly as they age are minimal and often were not give much concentration. This study entitled, The Relationship between the Level of Satisfaction of Social Support and the Psychosocial Task Development of the elderly, specifically emphasizes on the level of satisfaction of social support and its relationship to the psychosocial task of the elderly. Objective: The study aimed to determine the relationship between level of satisfaction of social support of elderly to the psychosocial task development which is Integrity. Design: Correlational, descriptive study is used to measure the correlation between level of satisfaction of social support of elderly to the psychosocial task development. Respondents: The sample size in this study included 17 elderly respondents aging from 60 to 85 years old selected through purposive sampling. There was no hand pick selection done because the researchers desired a one hundred percent population. The population was composed of 9 males and 8 females. Statistical treatment: The statistical treatments used in the study were Arithmetic Mean and Pearsons r. The Arithmetic mean was used to measure the level of satisfaction of social support and psychosocial task development of the elderly while the Pearsons r was used to determine if the two variables were correlated to each other. Methodology design: The study was conducted in Kanlungan ni Maria Nayon Silangan, Antipolo City. A communication letter was sent prior to the implementation of the study to state the researchers purpose of visit. The researchers surveyed and interviewed each respondent with the use of two standardized instruments namely: The Psychosocial Task Development Inventory and Social Support Questionnaire. Each researcher allotted approximately 15 minutes for each respondent. The data collection was done for one day. Results: The results of this study showed that there was a significant relationship between the level of satisfaction of social support and the psychosocial task development of the elderly. With a total of 17 respondents, the computed correlation coefficient based on the data is equal to 0.023 (<0.05), which indicated a significant relationship.
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