AGEING EMPOWERMENT GUIDELINES BY USING THE TEMPLE BASED AGEING SELF - CARE IN THAILAND

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to study 1) readiness and social capital of Buddhist temple that facilitates the temple as a base for the elderly self-care, 2) factors affecting the use of the temple as the base for the elderly self - care, and 3) guidelines for empowering the elderly by using the temple for their own self-care. The methodology combined qualitative and quantitative research.  A quantitative method was used to collect data from 489 elderly people who participated in the temple activities. Seven temples from 6 regions of the country were selected accidentally. The research tools were questionnaires with a reliability of 0.87. A qualitative method was used to collect data from 26 key informants by mean of in-depth interviews as abbots, older presidents of Province, officers of Social Development and Human Security and officers in local administrative organizations. Research instruments were questionnaires, structured interview, observation form, and focus group. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics; percentage, frequency, means, standard deviation and the Stepwise multiple regression analysis. As for qualitative methods, in-depth interview with content analysis is used to present data. The results show that          1) the readiness of the temple as a whole of Thailand is at a medium level while social capital that facilitates the temple as a base for the elderly self-care was high. 2) Cultural capital, resource capital, and human resource were factors affecting different degree of the readiness of the temple with statistical significance. and       3) empowerment of the elderly was at medium level. This research suggests that participatory empowerment should be used for the elderly that making public interest for Buddhist temple.