Familiarity with biological, psychological and sociological aspects of ageing among adult population

Abstract

In the context of pervasive demographic trend of ageing, the familiarity with the characteristics of the elderly becomes ever more significant. This paper's frame of reference is based on the Facts of Aging Quiz (Breytspraak & Badura, 2015), that was administered on a convenience sample of 280 respondents aged 20 to 65, living under varied family circumstances. The aim of the paper was to determine how familiar the adults are with different bio-psycho-social aspects of ageing. The analysis of data thus obtained indicated an average familiarity with facts about ageing, with significant statistical differences with respect to age group and life circumstances, and no significant differences with respect to gender. The results that we obtained indicate a better familiarity with biological facts about ageing than with psychological and sociological ones, which implies a need for additional education of adult population, not only for the sake of social and family adaptation to the process of ageing, but also accepting own ageing as an inevitable and natural aspect of life.

U kontekstu sveprisutnog demografskog trenda starenja, poznavanje karakteristika starih osoba postaje sve značajnije. Referentni okvir rada zasnovan je na upitniku sa činjenicama o starosti (Facts on Aging Quiz, Breytspraak & Badura, 2015), kojim je ispitan prigodni uzorak od 280 ispitanika, od 20 do 65 godina, koji žive u različitom porodičnom okruženju. Cilj rada je da se utvrdi koliko odrasle osobe poznaju različite bio-psiho-socijalne aspekte starosti. Analiza dobijenih rezultata istraživanja pokazala je prosečno poznavanje činjenica o starosti, s tim što su utvrđene značajne statističke razlike u odnosu na uzrasne grupe ispitanika i tip životnog aranžmana, dok razlike u odnosu na pol nisu pronađene. Dobijeni rezultati upućuju na bolje poznavanje bioloških činjenica o starosti od psiholoških i socioloških, što ukazuje na neophodnu dodatnu edukaciju odraslog stanovništva, ne samo zbog društvene i porodične adaptacije na starenje već i zbog prihvatanja sopstvenog starenja kao prirodnog i neizbežnog dela života.