Abstract Book of the 2nd Global Conference on Aging and Gerontology
Year: 2025
DOI:
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Dyadic Emotional Closeness between the Frail Older Adults and Their Foreign Domestic Helpers and Its Effect on Older Adults’ Subjective Well-being
Alice M. L. Chong, Dannii Yeung, M.Y. Leung, & Timothy. C.Y. Kwok
ABSTRACT:
In response to the shortage of family caregivers, Hong Kong has been importing female non-local care workers from south-east Asian countries, known as foreign domestic helpers (FDHs), to take care of frail older adults with physical or cognitive impairments. This presentation reports a cross-sectional survey aiming to examine the relationship between frail older Chinese and their live-in FDHs, and investigate the effect of perceived dyadic emotional closeness on the older adults’ subjective well-being. A total of 123 older adult-FDH dyads were interviewed separately. Among the older adults, 81.3% were female (mean age = 84.93 years, SD = 6.29). All FDHs were female, with 78.9% from Indonesia and had worked 2.58 years (SD = 2.47) in the current families. A large proportion of FDHs (68.7%) regarded the older adults as close or very close to them. However, only 23.6% of older adults perceived their FDHs as close or very close social partners. Higher life satisfaction was shown in the older adults whose dyads perceived the other party as an emotionally close social partner than the older adult-FDH dyads who did not have such perceived emotional closeness. This study reveals the non-reciprocal emotional closeness between older adults and FDHs, with the latter demonstrating a higher tendency to regard the older adults as emotionally close to them but not vice versa. Recommendations will be proposed to foster a positive relationship between the older adults and the FDHs.
keywords: Emotional closeness, foreign domestic helpers, informal caregiving, subjective well-being