The Interconnection of Attitude of the Elderly to Their Own Age and the Strategies of Coping with Aging

Abstract

For the elderly people the attitude to their own age is an important factor of adaptation to aging. In this respect, the coping with aging is viewed as an actual scientific problem. This article contains some results of the empirical research which brings additional light on it. It turns out that there is a preponderance of positive attitudes to their age among older people. Meanwhile, there are also age-related changes which determine negative feelings. The acceptance of one's own age and the level of satisfaction with it decrease after 65 years. The indicators of subjective age in the sample is equal to (47 %) or lower (44 %) than actual age values. Feelings about the age-related changes are mainly connected with health, appearance and general attitude to life. The respondents aged from 65 to 80 are significantly more sensitive to health problems and changes in the character than the group of people aged from 55 to 64. The most popular strategy for coping with aging is the search of social support. An inverse correlation between the integral indicators of attitudes toward one's own age and coping strategy of nature avoidance have been detected.

Keywords

• elderly age
• attitude to their own age
• types of attitude to aging
• successful aging
• subjective age
• strategies of coping with aging