Elder financial abuse based on victim–perpetrator relationship as perceived by Asian young adults

• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Author: Fadhila Ahamed Mohideen,Olga Khokhlova
• Date: 01 October 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12665

RESEARCH

Elder financial abuse based on victim–perpetrator

relationship as perceived by Asian young adults

Fadhila Ahamed Mohideen|Olga Khokhlova

Psychology Department, Middlesex University

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Correspondence:

Fadhila Ahamed Mohideen, Middlesex

University Dubai, Dubai Knowledge

Park - Blocks 4, 16, 17 & 19, Dubai,

United Arab Emirates.

Email: fadhila0328@gmail.com

Abstract

Objective: The current study aimed to examine how Asian

adults perceive the severity of elder financial abuse (EFA)

based on victim–perpetrator relationship and the explana-

tions they give for minimizing it when the perpetrator is a

close family member.

Background: Financial abuse, one of the fastest growing

forms of abuse in the elderly population, has remained

understudied, especially in Asian communities, due to cul-

tural variations in its definition and perception.

Method: A mixed-methods study design was utilized. One

hundred sixty-four participants responded to two vignettes

depicting EFA perpetrated by a close family member (son)

and nonfamily member (neighbor).

Results: Paired samples ttest found significant differences

in severity ratings of EFA committed by son and neighbor

within Asian adults. The qualitative report explored par-

ticipants’explanations for minimizing EFA perpetrated by

close family member using thematic analysis, which identi-

fied two major themes: (a) dismissal of severity and

responsibility and (2) justification of abuse.

Conclusion: This is one of the few studies to provide valu-

able insight into the influence of culture on perceptions of

elder abuse.

Implications: With the elderly population in Asia increas-

ing steadily, culturally relevant risk factors of abuse need

to be identified because this could guide legal provisions

that help protect the rights of older individuals.

KEYWORDS

Asian, elder, family, financial abuse, justify, mixed methods

Received: 7 January 2021Revised: 8 October 2021Accepted: 27 November 2021

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12665

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2022 The Authors. Family Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2022;71:1731–1746. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 1731

Domestic violence, a pattern of abusive behaviors used by an adult to exercise power and con-

trol over another, is a widespread problem (Johnson, 2017). According to the United Nations

(UN), domestic violence affects individuals in every community irrespective of nationality, age,

race, religion, and socioeconomic status (United Nations, 2022). Due to its widespread nature

and far-reaching effects on physical and mental health (Gibbons, 2011), domestic violence has

received a lot of attention over the years. However, one form of domestic violence that has been

understudied is financial abuse (Postmus et al., 2018).

Financial abuse, also commonly known as economic abuse, is defined as the improper or

illegal use of an individual’s money, funds, assets, or properties by another (Lowndes

et al., 2009). The dearth of research in the area of financial abuse can be attributed to the fact

that financial insecurity has long been seen as a consequence of domestic violence, and

researchers have only recently started addressing financial abuse directly and as a form of

domestic violence (Jackson & Hafemeister, 2012). Prevalence rates of financial abuse have been

difficult to estimate due to the paucity of research and difficulties in detecting it (Yon

et al., 2017).

Yi et al. (2015) estimated the global average prevalence rate of financial abuse to be around

18%. Outlaw’s(

2009) study, on the other hand, claimed that financial abuse was a rare phe-

nomenon. However, the survey that was used by Outlaw (2009) focused predominantly on other

forms of abuse, and the researcher used a single dichotomous “Yes–No”item to measure finan-

cial abuse and disregarded another item, which might have resulted in underreporting. Thus,

further research is needed to determine the prevalence estimates of financial abuse.

Despite financial abuse having received less attention, there is considerable amount of evi-

dence to support that it is one of the most common types of elder abuse (World Helath Organi-

zation, 2017). There is no universally agreed upon definition of elder abuse; however, the

definition that is frequently and widely used both in research and practice states that it is the

deliberate mistreatmentor exploitationof anolder adult(aged 60 yearsand older, asdefined

by the WHO and the UN; Fealy et al., 2012) by a caretaker or any individual within a relation-

ship involving an expectation of trust (Purser et al., 2018). A meta-analysis found that financial

abuse constitutes 34% of all elder abuse cases globally (Ho et al., 2017). However, it is likely

that current statistics underestimate the true scope of the problem of elder financial abuse

(EFA) because, unlike other violent forms of abuse (such as physical abuse), financial abuse is

not self-evident; it requires one to have considerable amount of knowledge about the victim’s

financial affairs, so it may go unnoticed and unreported due to its hidden nature (Naughton

et al., 2010). Despite not being as noticeable as other forms of abuse, Harries et al. (2014) found

that the impact of financial abuse on elders was as severe as other violent forms of abuse. Older

people are completely dependent on their savings for their expenses and, because of their age,

are unable to recoup their losses (Purser et al., 2018). Financial abuse results in loss of trust and

decline in quality of life for the victim, which can eventually result in isolation, hopelessness,

and depression (Park, 2014).

According to the political economic theory, older individuals become more marginalized

and increasingly dependent on others (especially family members) as they leave the workforce,

which is one of the major risk factors for EFA (Momtaz et al., 2013). Unsurprisingly, then, an

extensive review of the scholarly literature and an in-depth analysis of newsfeed articles on

EFA by Fealy et al. (2012) reported that the most common perpetrators of EFA are close rela-

tives of the victim, and almost 60% of them are the adult children of victims, followed by

spouses and other family members, and sons were 2.5 times more likely to be perpetrators of

EFA compared with daughters. Despite EFA having such a deeply negative impact on the vic-

tim, more than 80% of these cases go unreported precisely because perpetrators are close rela-

tives of the victim (Gibson & Greene, 2013) and both victims and observers are less likely to

perceive any form of domestic violence perpetrated by a close family member as abuse

(Gibson & Qualls, 2012). Several studies have found evidence that supports this finding

1732 FAMILY RELATIONS