Psychosocial well-being of senior citizens with emigrant children

It is presumed generally, that elderly parents with emigrant children are facing many psychologicaland socialproblems. Emigration has oftenenhanced the emigrant's earnings, as they may then be able to send more to their elderly parent's back home. However, the emigrant may not be able to travel back home to their parentsto provide them personal care. The objective of this paper is to assess the psychosocial well-being of the Senior citizens withemigrant children in Ernakulum District. The paper reports the results based on a research study among selected Senior citizens with emigrant children thereby assessing their life situations, coping strategies and support systems. The study reveals that informal support available to senior citizensresiding in urban areas are feweven though they are more in contact with formal support systems. However, the emotional gap created by children and grandchildren's physical absence cannot be filled fully by these support systems. Advancement in transportand technology has increased the communication level between senior citizens and their emigrant Children. Butthis has not fully alleviated the problem. The study looks into the strategies used by senior citizens for developing a productive approach to the future. Thus this paper's findings will create awareness among senior citizens with emigrant children on healthy ageing.