• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.1-12
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study was to identify latent classes of socioeconomic status and to explore whether those of socioeconomic status influenced self-esteem among elderly living alone. From the data of 2009 National Elder Abuse Investigation, 1,333 older adults who were over 65 years and living alone were analyzed. Latent class analysis, one-way ANOVA, and hierarchical regression analysis were performed to test the purpose of this study. Results of this study found 5 latent classes of socioeconomic status, named as high education-low income group, low education-low income group, middle education-low income group, high education-high income group, and low education-high income group. Next, there were significant differences in self-esteem depending on 5 latent classes of socioeconomic status. Finally, compared to low education-low income group, high education-low income group, middle education-low income group, high education-high income group, and low education-high income group showed higher levels of self-esteem, even after adjusting for confounding factors. Findings from this study suggested fundamental characteristics and public policy for elderly living alone.