"How did I get here?": a qualitative life-course analysis of Australian women's experiences of elder abuse

We applied a life-course perspective to understand how older women's reported experiences of serious elder abuse were shaped by a history of violence and poverty.

17 participants (mean age 65.8, SD 4.5) self-reporting experiencing elder abuse within the past 12 months were purposively recruited from the longitudinal Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy cohort. They participated in a 1-hour semi-structured qualitative interview between April and November 2024 and their data were analyzed using a thematic approach.

Participants were relatively healthy, cognitively unimpaired, and mainly from a low-income background (13, 76.5%). Elder abuse was part of a lifelong continuum of family violence beginning in childhood or midlife, with poly-victimization common and multifaceted. Poor health and advancing age compounded participant's vulnerability, while cumulative economic disadvantage was gendered and heightened women's risk in later life. Finally, violent and misogynistic media content, a growing intergenerational wealth gap, and gendered ageism were seen as contextual factors deepening intergenerational divides and eroding familial cohesion.

This study is the first in Australia to examine elder abuse through a life-course lens, drawing directly on older women's lived accounts. The findings demonstrate how interlocking patterns of dependence, declining health, and cumulative inequality converge in later life. Viewing elder abuse through this perspective moves attention beyond isolated incidents to the broader patterns that shape vulnerability, informing prevention and policy strategies that tackle the structural and relational determinants of abuse across the lifespan.