The Influence of the Types of Disability on Seniors' Perceived Discrimination- A Mediating Effect of Leisure Activities

The Influence of the Types of Disability on Seniors' Perceived Discrimination* - A Mediating Effect of Leisure Activities

Background and Purpose: Disabled seniors seem to experience higher degree of perceived discrimination compared to those without specific disabilities. Social activities appear to mitigate such perceived discriminations, especially leisure activities among others. This research aims to identify the relationship between the types of disability and the levels of perceived discrimination. Furthermore, we focused on how this perception of presumed discrimination changes through the mediation effect of various leisure activities.

Methods: This research was based on the 2005 survey of disabled seniors conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, which studied 1,284 seniors with disabilities over 65. The seniors' individual perception of discrimination was measured using the 4 point Likerts Scale, which also measured the types of disability (physical, speech, visual, acoustic, etc.). The development of disability is classified into inherent-at-birth, before 65, and after 65. This research used the K-ADL Scale (Korean Activities of Daily Living), categorizing the activities into 4 types: no leisure activity, passing time, amusement and self-development. The control variables were gender, age, education, economic level, and household types. As the method of analysis, a logistic regression was used in the first stage because the mediation was nominal variable, and multiple regressions were adopted in stage 2 and 3 using the SPSS 12.0.

Results: First, the seniors' individual perception of discrimination according to the specific type of disability is such that: those with speech or acoustic disabilities perceived more discrimination (p<.000, 001) than those with physical disabilities; disabled seniors with lower ADL (p<.004) or longer history of disability (p<.000) perceived more discrimination. Second, the type of leisure activity was influenced by the type of their disability, and the degree of ADL was statistically significant (p<.026) in choosing the type of leisure. Finally, leisure activities with specific purposes, such as amusement and self-development, have a partial mediation effect on individual perception of discrimination (p<.041).

Conclusions and Implications: First, it is evident that the types and the duration of disability along with the level of ADL affected the perception of discrimination. This shows that the perception of discrimination and the types of leisure activities differentiate according to the types of disability. More specifically, since seniors with speech and acoustic disabilities face greatest challenges, we need a drastic change of society's understanding with greater social support for them. Second, the leisure activities mediated partially on the relationship between the types of disabilities and the individual perception of discrimination. This indicates that the disabled seniors' perception of discrimination could be decreased by the participation in appropriate leisure activities. Therefore, it is imperative that various leisure activity programs developed by social service agencies according to the level of ADL are needed in order to improve the perception of discrimination towards seniors with disabilities.

*Perceived discrimination, or individual perception of discrimination, does not mean actual discriminations that older adults experience; rather, it is mere presumption or perception of supposed discrimination.