저소득층 독거 여성노인의 일상생활 체험연구

Abstract

2001년 65세 이상 노인인구의 비율이 7.3% 수준이며 2020년에는 14.1%로 증가할 것으로 예측하고 있다. 평균수명 역시 2001년도를 기준으로 2020년을 예측해 볼 때 남성은 72.1세에서 77.5세로, 여성은 79.5세에서 84.1세로 연장될 전망이다. 한국의 노인가구 즉 가구원 중 한사람이라도 65세 이상의 노인이 있는 노인가구는 전체의 20.9%에 해당되며 이들 노인가구중 노인이 혼자 생활하고 있는 독거 노인 가구는 32.1%를 차지하고 있다(한국 통계청 2001). 독거 노인 가구의 분포를 성별, 연령별로 보면 남성 노인은 14.7%만이 혼자 살고 있으나, 여성노인의 경우 약 85.3%가 혼자 살고 있는 것으로 나타나고 있다. 따라서 독거 노인의 문제는 곧 여성노인의 문제라고 해도 과언이 아니다. 이러한 인구학적 요인은 여성노인의 생활환경에 영향을 미칠 뿐 아니라 사회변동과 더불어 여성노인의 건강문제를 일으키는 근본원인이 된다. 이에 본 연구는 인간현상의 보편적이면서 본질적인 측면을 밝힐 수 있는 해석학적 현상학적 연구방법을 적용하여 저소득층 독거 여성노인이 실제로 처한 현실과 일상생활의 체험을 그들의 관점에서 이해하고 그 체험에 내재되어 있는 일상생활의 의미와 본질을 발견하고자 하였다. 본 연구는 밴 매넌의 해석학적 현상학연구방법의 단계로 체험의 본질에 집중, 실존적 탐구, 해석학적 현상학적 반성과 글쓰기를 하였다. 본 연구의 목적에 따라 일개 도시에 거주하고 있는 저소득층(생활보호법 제3조에 의거 보건복지부 장관이 소득과 재산을 기준으로 매년 정하는 보호대상자 선정기준에 해당하는 자) 65세 이상의 독거 여성노인을 대상자로 선정하였고 연구 참여자수는 총 7명이다. 본 연구의 자료수집은 2001년 10월부터 2002년 2월까지로 2회 내지 5회에 걸쳐 심층면담과 관찰을 통해 이루어졌고, 면담시 개방적이고 반구조화된 질문형식을 사용하였으며 1회 면담시 소요된 시간은 1시간 내지 1시간 30분 정도였다. 연구참여자의 동의를 얻어 면담내용은 모두 녹음하였으며 면담 즉시 녹음내용을 여러 번 반복하여 들으면서 참여자가 표현한 언어 그대로 필사하였다. 본 연구에서는 본질적인 주제를 결정하기 위한 주제분석을 위해 필사된 내용을 녹음 테이프를 들으면서 원 자료의 내용과 비교하였으며 불명확한 부분은 다음 인터뷰 시 확인하여 면담내용의 정확성을 확보하였고 세분법 혹은 추행법에 따라 주제를 이끌어냈으며 분석된 주제와 의미가 같은 기술을 연구자의 경험, 어원, 관용어구 및 문학, 예술작품과 어떻게 관련되는지를 비교 검토하여 반영하였다. 참여자의 일상생활 체험의 해석학적 현상학적 반성의 본질적인 주제로 자식이 있어도 의지하고 살 곳이 없음 , 자신이 살아온 삶이 한스러움 , 하루도 편할 날이 없는 몸 , 남은 날이 막막함 , 동향(同鄕)까리 모여 챙겨줌 등을 도출하였다. ; This research aims to understand the meaning and essence of everyday life experiences of low-income elderly women living alone. The area of investigation in this study is "what is the meaning of daily life experienced by elderly women living alone?" This study is a van Manen s hermeneutic phenomenological research, focusing on the meaning of lived experience, existential investigating the phenomenon, and reflecting and writing with an hermeneutic phenomenology approach. In order to meet the requirements of pertinence and sufficiency, low-income (those who are classified as being eligible for national pension under Article 3 of the Livelihood Protection Law, calculated annually by income and asset by the Minister if Health and Welfare) elderly women over the age of 65 living alone in cities were studied. In the process of selecting the sample, research was conducted only after consent was given by the concerned health care facility. With the help of local nurses elderly women over age 65 who were receiving support under the Livelihood Protection Law were selected and were visited with the help of home volunteers designated by the concerned district office. For sufficiency of data, in-depth interviews were conducted where questions were asked until no additional information was found. Each participant was asked to interview as little as 2 times to as much as 5 times. A total of 7 women took part in the study. For this study interviewees were first contacted through telephone to set up a convenient time and place for them before conduction the interview. For others who had no access to the telephone, help was sought from participants who had phones to decide the time and place. For those working, visitations took place in the evening after their work hours and others were interviewed usually after their free-of-charge physical therapies. At first, to establish a friendly relationship the participants were visited with a volunteer designated by the concerned Ku office. The purpose of the research was explained to them and because most of the participants could not read or write, they gave their consent orally and recorded. Data for this research was collected from October 2001 to February 2002. In-depth analyses and observations were made from 2 to 5 interviews per person. Open and quasi-structured inquiries were made. A typical interview took up 1 to 1 1/2 hours. During the interview particular attention was given to the expression and wording of the interviewee and when visiting the house of the interviewee, external environment as well as the heating and cooling system and electricity were carefully scrutinized. During the first interview, a tape recorder was used. Interviewees were concerned that their children would receive retribution if information recorded were either heard or read by someone else. The researcher promised that the recorded information would be used solely for the research and would be destroyed immediately after use. In order to restrict other participants, the researcher did not set up a time for a second interview immediately after the first. Instead, 1 to 2 visits were made randomly, visiting the participants houses at a convenient time for them, thereby gaining greater trust from the participants. Afterwards, a second interview followed naturally and proceeded with much more ease. This researcher also visited the participants during national holidays and found that after those visits, participants were more amicable towards the researcher. Upon consent from the participants, all the interviews were recorded and listened to several times immediately after the interview to transcribe interviewee s words verbatim. Morse&Field(1997) states that there is an important interaction at play between collection and analysis of data, the reason being that data analysis becomes a guideline for further data collection and a determining factor for the nature of the next interview. Therefore, interview materials were recorded and analyzed as soon as possible before conducting the next interview with the same pool of interviewees. In this study to determine to the essential theme via a thematic analysis, transcribed notes from the recording were compared with the original. Comments that were unclear were clarified at the following interview to ascertain accuracy of interview materials. Themes similar in meaning were selected from descriptives and were examined and reflected upon comparative analysis of themes and their relation to the researcher s experiences, origin of language, idiomatic expressions, literature and other works of art. In this study, themes collected form texts and various sources from the participants were listened to repeatedly to identify the significance and nature of daily experiences of low-income elderly women living alone and went back to interpretive phenomenological reflection. As a result, No where to turn to even though having children , Feeling remorse about own life , Not a single day going by without pain , Worrying about the remaining years and Looking after one another among the people form the same hometown were identified as essential themes.