Journal of Administrative Sciences and Policy Studies

An Analysis of the Factors that Affect the Life Satisfaction of Elderly Turks Living in Australia
Hülya Öztop, Bahar Kinaci

Abstract
The aim of this study was to determine the opinions of people who were older than 60, born in Turkey and living in Australia, about returning to Turkey permanently, the number of years they had lived abroad, how often they travel to Turkey and the influence of these factors on their life satisfaction. The dependent variable of this study was the Life Satisfaction Scale created by Neugarten, Havighurst, and Tobin (1961). The scale's validity and reliability analyses in Turkey were done by Camur Karatas. The study results indicate that a majority of the participants were females between 60 and 69 years of age, and 77.3% of them had been living in Sydney for 30 to 39 years. Of the participants, 44.5% traveled to Turkey once every two or three years and 31.8% traveled to Turkey once every four or five years. Of the participants, 19.1% considered returning to live to Turkey permanently. The hierarchical regression analysis results revealed that income and education levels had the greatest influence on females' life satisfaction, while age, education, and income levels had the greatest influence on males' life satisfaction. It was found that females' life satisfaction decreased as the frequency of their visits to Turkey and the length of their residence in Sydney increased. Males' life satisfaction decreased as the frequency of their visits to Turkey decreased.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jasps.v4n1a2