An exploration into the coping strategies used by elderly during COVID-19

Abstract

The global pandemic of COVID 19 has brought forth several physical and psychological implications in the lives of numerous individuals. With the restrictions placed to curb the spread of the disease, a new pattern of living and coping has emerged. This paper has been an exploration into the ways in which the individuals are perceiving the situation and the measures of coping they have been utilising in order to maintain their psychological wellbeing during these times. Semi structured interview of eight elderly individuals has been taken and the method of phenomenological hermeneutic approach has been used to analyse the data in order to capture the coping strategies being used by the elderly individuals. It has been observed that the elderly individuals chiefly made use of the strategy of acceptance and problem focused coping to effectively deal with the transformed circumstances.