Medial age pictures distort view of the age

Study: Medial age images distort view of the age

11/14/2011

"Aging is not a threat to society, as is repeatedly claimed, but a formable process," said the President of the Social and Welfare Association, Voluntary Solidarity, Prof. Dr. med. Gunnar Winkler, on Monday in Berlin. At a press conference he presented the study "Elderly becoming older - ideas of the citizens", commissioned by the Social Research Center Berlin-Brandenburg e. V. (SFZ). The process of aging must be designed in the interests of citizens of all generations and should not be subordinated to unilateral free-market and financial requirements.

The study of the people solidarity is based on the 6th report of the Federal Government "Age pictures in society," said Winkler (photo left - right in the picture Dr. Reinhard Liebscher SFZ). The material is based on the empirical survey "Life in the new federal states" conducted annually since 1990 on behalf of the Volkssolidarität Bundesverband e.V. In 2011, a total of 2,212 citizens aged 18 and over were interviewed in the new federal states and Berlin-East as well as in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).

"In 1990, our association did not turn against one-sided pictures of its age in its first" old-age report "," stressed Winkler. "At the time, we were still opposed to reducing old-age work to care and support." But still the image of the citizens of aging is determined more by their fear of their own long-term care than by the official statements on age as an active phase of life. Above all, "what and how the media report on aging and aging has an influence on it: less is informed about active aging than about aging and care." The result was: "The threat of needing care comes to the forefront of social and individual fears of aging: 63 percent of all 18-year-olds in the new federal states and East Berlin as well as 67 percent in North Rhine-Westphalia fear that they will need care in old age. "

According to Winkler, the study also shows that "overall, the relationships of the generations are rated as negative." According to this, only twelve percent of the respondents in eastern Germany and nine percent of respondents in North Rhine-Westphalia see a solidarity between generations. "About one-third in both East and West anticipate an increase in the generational conflict and half of a partial increase." The association president sees this primarily as a "distribution conflict". "In general, younger people are more likely to agree to an increasing conflict." Almost half of the respondents believe that the younger generation will be supported at the expense of the elderly. They assumed that the elderly live at the expense of the next generation. According to Winkler, this leads to the question "when responsible politicians not only agree with old people's reports, but do not assign the dismantling of increasing public debt to the elders and demand cuts in their living conditions, but name the really guilty and envisage redistributions that are necessary."

The ideas of citizens on their own aging are hardly pronounced, the association president stated on the basis of the study. This is especially true for the 50- to 65-year-olds. "The real problem is that around 40 percent of respondents tend to have little or no ideas for their retirement." This applies in particular to the lower income groups and the lower skilled. "This will make a future problem even clearer," stressed Winkler. An absolutely and proportionately increasing group of people for whom their gained free time is often associated with the loss of quality of life - if only because of low or missing social involvement. "" Be noteworthy ", that civic and political commitment occupy the last places , They have a low significance for life in old age. "47 percent in the east and 43 percent in NRW assume that their political commitment to old age is out of the question or that there is no interest in it.

The People's Solidarity wants to expand their offers for an active transition to old age, announced Verbandsgeschäftsfuhrer Horst Riethausen at the press conference. He pointed out, as did the association president, that "solidarity with the people" continues to be a "constructive and reliable partner for society and politics" when it comes to finding answers to social issues such as aging, but also others. (Pm)