The Marital Status and Family Life of Elderly Blind People in Croatia

This paper is a study of the main characteristics of the marital status and family life of old blind people in Croatia, as well as the perception of their position in the family. Another aim is to establish whether segments of the elderly blind population differ significantly in their marital and family status with reference to the following variables: sex, age, place of residence, age at which the person became blind. For this purpose, the study was conducted on a sample ol 174 respondents from all parts of Croatia. The sample was selected among the old blind persons who were members of the Croatian Association of the Visually lmpaired and had legally defined impairments. At the family level, old blind people are faced with the same problems as the elderly are in general. An important problem for this group is loss of spouse and living alone. Life in marriage appears to be a privilege for older (blind) people. With aging, the number of respondents living in complete families (meaning with spouses and children) is rapidly decreasing. Moving a blind person from his/her domicile has more serious consequen(es than moving a person who is not blind, as the blind use nonvisual techniques in daily life. Most old blind people by far have positive attitudes towards their families, but in general they are not satisfied with their roles in family decision-making. By one-way variance analysis, it was ascertained that respondents differ most with respect to sex and age. The position of old people has been influenced mostly by changes in family structure. The degree of independence of an old blind person will depend on family relationships and the strength of the "supporting network" between generations. Living apart from their children, however, does not have to mean alienation from their family.