De Donder Liesbeth, De Witte Nico, Dury Sarah, Buffel Tine, Verté Dominique
Department of Educational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
University College Ghent, Keramiekstraat 80, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Eur J Ageing. 2012 Mar 22;9(3):233-242. doi: 10.1007/s10433-012-0226-8. eCollection 2012 Sep.
The aim of this contribution is twofold: on one hand to examine the individual risk factors regarding feelings of unsafety among older people and on the other hand to investigate whether they differ between third-age adults (aged 60-79) and fourth-age adults (aged 80+). This study seeks to identify the relationship between demographic variables, lack of economic resources, well-being and perceived ageism on the one side and feelings of unsafety on the other. On the basis of data from the Belgian Ageing Studies ( = 26,116), it was found that fourth-age adults experienced higher levels of feelings of unsafety than third-age adults. Furthermore, hierarchical regression models indicated that gender, number of children and perceived ageism were significantly related to feelings of unsafety across the third and fourth ages. However, several individual characteristics were found to be specific to the different age groups. Conclusively, practical implications and research issues are critically discussed by emphasising the importance of tackling structural inequalities among older persons to reduce their feelings of unsafety.
一方面,研究老年人不安全感受的个体风险因素;另一方面,调查这些因素在年轻老年人(60-79岁)和高龄老年人(80岁及以上)之间是否存在差异。本研究旨在确定人口统计学变量、经济资源匮乏、幸福感和感知到的年龄歧视与不安全感受之间的关系。基于比利时老龄化研究的数据(n = 26,116),研究发现高龄老年人比年轻老年人经历更高水平的不安全感受。此外,分层回归模型表明,性别、子女数量和感知到的年龄歧视在年轻老年人和高龄老年人中均与不安全感受显著相关。然而,研究发现一些个体特征在不同年龄组中具有特异性。最后,通过强调解决老年人结构性不平等以减少其不安全感受的重要性,对实际意义和研究问题进行了批判性讨论。