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Population aging in Nepal is a recent phenomenon, due more to demographic changes than to socio‐economic development. The study had three goals: to analyze the social support exchange among elderly men and women; to discover the main sources of support in loneliness and subjective well‐being in the elderly; and to study the cross‐cultural differences in support among elderly Chhetri (N = 137, mean age = 69.1 [7.2] years) and Newar people (N = 195, mean age = 68.8 [7.7] years) in one ward in Kathmandu. The data were collected using face‐to‐face interviews. The dependent variables were loneliness and subjective well‐being (SWB). The results for both ethnic Chhetri and Newar respondents show that their major support comes from their children living in the same household and their spouses. I conclude that the sources of social support and social support exchange are similar between the two castes/ethnicities and that there are no cross‐cultural differences between them in terms of support for loneliness and SWB‐life stability, although there are cross‐cultural differences in their SWB‐life satisfaction. Providing social support to friends and neighbors appears to be related to less loneliness and increased SWB in both castes/ethnicities.

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The aim of this study was to analyze the situation of social support exchange among elderly men and women and to study the cross-cultural validity of predictors of loneliness in two Nepalese castes/ethnicities of older adults. Data for this study were taken from a cross-sectional study of the elderly at least 60 years old living in one ward of Kathmandu City, conducted in 2005. Loneliness was measured using a three-item loneliness scale based on the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale. Sources of social support were classified as spouse, children living with their elders, children living apart, and friends/neighbors. Study findings indicate that the main social support exchange for the elderly was with adult children living together, spouse, and friends/neighbors. Results also show gender difference in social support. Significant variables of loneliness were social support received from spouse, social support provided to spouse, and children living together with both elderly parents. This finding shows there is a high degree of cross-cultural invariance in the predictor sources of social support on loneliness among two Nepalese castes/ethnicities older adults.

Introduction: With the increasing global population concern on older person's abuse is also increasing. There is dearth of research on the elder abuse of older persons in Nepal and very little is known about this.