Loneliness in the Aging Population with Visual Disabilities

Abstract

Loneliness is likely to be affected by the level of subjective satisfaction with an individual's interpersonal relationships such that everyone could feel lonely regardless of visual ability/disability. However, little is known about the degree to which people with visual disabilities develop loneliness especially among older populations and how they manage their emotions. To address the knowledge gap, this study invited 18 older adults with visual disabilities to interviews. The participants completed the instruments of the UCLA Loneliness Scale and the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS) to measure the loneliness levels and the emotional intelligence abilities (i.e., emotional attention, clarity, and repair abilities) respectively. This study provided evidence that older adults with visual disabilities experienced a range of loneliness from low to severe and showed individual differences in emotional intelligence abilities by degree of loneliness, dimensions of emotions (i.e., valence and arousal), and a sociodemographic background (i.e., living alone and with others). The results of this study will be beneficial to many researchers and professionals in developing interventions to reduce loneliness in older adults with visual disabilities, for example, by improving their emotional attention, clarity, and repair abilities.