ABSTRACT
The growing international evidence on the impacts of social isolation and loneliness has profound implications for positive health status and wellbeing. This raises important questions about how we measure socially including/excluding variables such as wellbeing, loneliness, social connection, abuse, discrimination, life shocks, life choices, and recreation, for example. This is particularly important in extended family cultures where social inclusion/exclusion may be experienced differently from Western more individualistic cultures. Spirituality is sometimes central to a culture’s worldview. Standard Western scales are usually constructed from a basis of Western assumptions about individual rights and independence within a secular framework.
In this research, key questions around loneliness were co-created with indigenous Māori elders. A scale of Māori specific co-created questions on loneliness was developed and it was administered alongside a standard international Loneliness Scale (De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale). The Māori specific questions related to the changing role of elders in the modern world and the different ways they experience social inclusion/exclusion in their communities. The results demonstrated significant correlations between the co-created questions and the international scales. They also demonstrated substantial expressions of loneliness among older Māori that are not captured by standard scales showing the need for measures that are more inclusive of their cultural norms and can provide more precise data for constructive policymaking and the provision of services.
This chapter sets out the processes of the co-creation method with examples from transcripts and the delicate cultural processes involved. It also sets out key aspects of the current research programme that has developed from it, which involves co-research gatherings to develop Māori specific scales for the other variables noted above. This study has a national random sample of 1,500 Māori 50 years and over and a repeat follow-up survey two years later.
