Residence, Kinship and Social Isolation among the Aged Baganda

This research investigated the impact qf interactions with kin on social integration in old age. A nonrandom sample consisting qf 115 aged Baganda in Uganda were interviewed concerning perceptions qf loneliness and social isolation. The results show that, among these people, whose values--individualism, self-reliance and independence-parallel those of the United States, the majority of the elderly do not view old age as a period of loneliness or isolation. Loneliness was found to be associated with widowhood, residential separation from kin and poor health. Respondents who violated norms of neolocality were more satisfied and better integrated.