The social dimension of population aging

Social Dimension of Aging Population Social adaptation cannot be full-fledged without an active relationship of the senior to the social environment. Adaptation of a senior is related to how he preserves, fulfills and develops his changed function, how he participates in family life, what contacts he has with other people, how he maintains his physical and spiritual abilities based on satisfying his own needs. As Koval (2005) states, human adaptation is universal and has a number of peculiarities in old age. In youth, this process is influenced by work and with the active participation of consciousness, but in old age these factors disappear. The adaptation of a senior often resembles the instinct of self-preservation. The morphological-physiological peculiarities of the senior, which are conditioned by the aging process, cannot change as quickly as the surrounding environment. As a result, there is a discrepancy between these processes, the manifestation of which is a change in the way of behavior, a change in interpersonal relations and the social environment in general. The subject of social adaptation can be society as a whole, a social group, as well as an individual. In accordance with this content, the degree of social maladaptation is different. It can be a disorder of an individual in a group, but also a group adjustment disorder, i.e. insufficient social relations. Social disadaptation is dangerous because its cause lies in interpersonal, group, political, religious, economic and similar contradictions. An important condition for adaptation is the optimization of relationships, which can be achieved on the basis of deep mutual emotional understanding. The beginning of social, but also psychological old age should be considered the year a woman and a man leave for old-age pension, i.e. around the age of 60. This age is conditioned by the emerging social status of men and women at retirement. The status of a pensioner primarily has a significant psychological and emotional impact on the individual and his surroundings, but it also represents a change in his social status due not only to the limitation of social activities, but also to economic limitations. It can be said that the social old age of an individual begins at this age. The social position of a senior citizen is determined by his position in relation to other social positions. Social position consists of social status and social role. The obtained social position is acquired by the individual's own efforts. Ascribed is innate, assigned by belonging to a certain social class. With retirement, every social position takes on a relationship dynamic and is now difficult to maintain with increasing age. In old age, the assigned social position expressed by the social status of a senior dependent on a pension often prevails. It is for this reason that the senior loses his prestige. A materially poor society conditions the loss of the pensioner's social position, to which the amount of the pension and the material security of the senior citizen bring him to the level. For a senior who strives for a healthy and positive old age, it is important how he sees himself and how we perceive him. Social status is a term that indicates the position of an individual in a certain sample of society, as a "set of rights and obligations", in contrast to the term "role", which is the implementation of these rights and obligations in an activity, which means that it is a dynamic aspect of status. A social role is the behavior expected of a person in a certain social position. The social role is closely related, on the one hand, to social norms of behavior, which are embedded in social habits, customs, laws and taboos, and, on the other hand, to forms of social control of an individual's behavior. In old age, the number of tasks, and thus also social positions, decreases. The senior often no longer even fulfills the role of a grandparent in the family. As a result of disturbed generational relations, poor social adaptation and other factors, he becomes lonely (Koval 2005).

As the above-mentioned author further states, social adaptation is an interaction process, a differentiated and essentially lifelong adaptation to the changing social and material environment of the life of the subpopulation of seniors in which the old person lives and where the old person copes with new or changed factors of his social environment, in which he is integrated. The final phase of the adaptation process is complete settlement, incorporation of new conditions, partial adaptability or inadaptability. Social adaptability depends on the structure of the subject, the size of the changes, the favorable conditions of adaptation and the willingness to help. Based on these conditions, suitable conditions should be created for the retiring person to adapt to a new lifestyle, new social status, status and role that he will play in the given community. Acceptance of the new status can positively activate the senior in favor of his new life. Retired people often find themselves in the role of deferred, despite the fact that they are materially saturated, they remain lonely and alienated. In our society, a model of old age has been created, which is suitable for old people. Seniors must actively and with considerable wisdom strive for mutually good relations with their children and grandchildren. They want to be useful and leave a memory as a ray of eternity that will accompany the younger generation throughout their earthly life.

According to Hamilton (1999), adaptation to old age could be better for some individuals if the elderly person had the opportunity to participate either in voluntary activities or in the work process. His income would increase, he would feel a greater sense of stability, life direction and usefulness. The situation in which man found himself at the threshold of the 21st century is reminiscent of a new historical crossroads at which globalized humanity must find a new meaning for its existence and a new direction for its development. In the conditions of globalization, the human sense has not lost its meaning. Only the life that we live without the ideas imposed on us by modern society loses its meaning (Balogová et al. 2009).

The aging process is associated with significant changes in the social field. Substantial changes occur primarily in the family. Aging parents whose children have grown up and left the household mostly live alone. They lose not only the parental but also the grandparental function, but above all the significant material, social and psychological support of their children in their old age (Žumarová, Balogová 2009).

Retirement is not only a critical turning point, but also a period of crisis. Self-confidence and self-assurance begin to disappear. It is a psychologically demanding period in which a person loses the ability to achieve social status. Many adapt more poorly to the retirement period. This is why we talk about a pension crisis, a pension debacle or a pension illness. An aging person is still trying to catch up with what he missed before, but he is no longer trying to imitate his ideals. The initial confusion alternates with the satisfaction of the presence, but soon distrust creeps in. In order to prevent the decline of social and economic status, it is necessary to focus on the targeted management of such risks. A person expects a relatively long period between the end of economic activity and the beginning of dependence on old age. It is desirable to fill it with valuable activity, a new program and perspective of life.

As Balogová (2005) states, an elderly person loses certain social roles, loses previously acquired contacts, his perspectives and value system change. An individual living with the current work and family regime must reorient himself to another activity, to the field of culture, sports and his own interests. However, these changes in the life of a senior should be gradual and non-violent. During this period, the senior citizen is confronted with a constantly poorer social environment, when he has to deal with children leaving home, the loss of a life partner, but also friends and acquaintances, which deepens social isolation. The financial situation changes, the state of health deteriorates, and often the elderly person is unable to take care of himself, which affects the quality of life. Seniors have a fear of loneliness.

Poláchová (2007) distinguishes five categories of how to cope with one's own aging from the point of view of adaptation to senior age:

• Constructivism is the optimal strategy. People have an optimistic attitude towards life, are tolerant and establish relationships with others. They are reconciled with the fact of aging and are aware of the possibilities of their performances and their dimensions.
• Defensive attitude is a strategy typical of people who are afraid of any kind of addiction and the imminent loss of an active life, and for this reason they refuse any help.
• People who have been passive all their lives and relied mainly on others have a tendency to addiction in old age. Even now, they expect their needs to be met by someone else. They often exaggerate their problems, which allows them to manipulate the environment more easily.
• Furthermore, there are people who perceive old age as a misfortune. They tend to blame others, are often aggressive, irritable and dissatisfied. These people consider themselves a kind of victim of their fate, they are regretful and pessimistic. They feel very lonely, but on the other hand, they do not seek any social contact with other people.

The way of coping with all the changes associated with old age is always individual. We encounter different combinations of these reactions (Žumarová, Balogová 2009). Adaptation to old age is influenced by a whole complex of factors. In addition to the already mentioned person's personality and physical condition, the social aspect includes factors such as the social atmosphere, preferred lifestyle, retirement, change of social status, loss of life partner, family, or whether Christian thinking was preferred in it or not. All these factors play a role in why some adapt better to old age and others less so. The overall social atmosphere is important for creating a moral relationship with older people. An important social factor that affects the life of an elderly person is retirement. This is when the range of activities is limited, the previous program is lost and contact with other people is narrowed. The senior begins to focus on his problems, assigning them great importance. Such behavior can lead to social isolation. The fact that the senior ceases to be a member of social groups of which he was a member can also lead to isolation. Personal dissatisfaction (most often in a man) may consist in the fact that the senior does not know what to do with his time, how to fill it. The profession has provided him with life content until now, and leaving his job leaves him with a long moment and emptiness. Working sixty-year-old men with a positive attitude towards retirement have more plans and their view of the future is more optimistic than those men who see mostly negative aspects in their retirement. Those retirees who make plans for the future while still working are adapting faster. And here is the space that charity, the church and other institutions could provide for seniors - for the good of society, parish communities and for their self-realization (Balogová 2005).

Each senior is a unique being living in a certain ecosystem, in which close or extended family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, but also the residential community, the state with its legal and moral standards, and even the European or world community operate. Thomas Campanella (in Bilasová 2008) emphasizes that the starting point and support of human knowledge is the awareness of one's own existence, i.e. self-perception. Self-evaluation and self-perception changes in the course of history, and so does the meaning of life.

The phenomenon of active aging

It is predicted that in 2030, a quarter of the population in the economically developed world will be over 65 years of age, and almost half of Western Europe will be over 50 years of age. Experts from several fields of research address issues of aging and old age from several points of view. The first professional interest in aging came from medical circles. The interest of doctors in aging and old age has been known since antiquity and the Middle Ages. However, medicine in this period mainly provided a qualitative description of observed phenomena and empirical experiences.

Today's gerontology originated at the beginning of the 20th century. She collected a lot of material and expressed several hypotheses about the nature of aging and old age. The average age increased, the death rate decreased, but the maximum life expectancy and the rate of aging remained the same. In this context, Hrozenská (2008) talks about the fact that current science can significantly reduce mortality in middle age, but it did not affect the risk of death in older age groups. Any progress in medicine, any improvement in living conditions, any improvement in hygiene, all of this has substantially reduced the risk of death in young and middle-aged people, but it has not helped the vulnerable organism of the elderly.

As stated by Holmerová (2006), in the past almost no attention was paid to the issues of active aging. Not many people lived to an advanced or old age in good health, which meant that it was not important to solve a similar issue. But the situation has completely changed. Currently, it is important to promote a lifelong active approach to life and increase public awareness of forms of healthy living in old age. In Slovakia, this attitude has not yet become a common part of the life of today's seniors. In the future, the idea of ​​active aging can be a solution not only for society, but also for the senior citizen himself. It is extremely important that an older person finds the meaning of his life and that his autonomy is preserved as long as possible. In the past, seniors were not used to thinking about preparing for old age, nor thinking about aging as an active part of their lives. Rather, aging was expected to involve passive leisure time. Recently, however, great changes have been taking place, people are beginning to realize that the situation is changing. Future seniors should therefore look at this period of life in a completely different way. It is true that it is never too late to change, but it is not possible to tell people how to live. Some people are comfortable with a greater share of activity during their life, others the opposite. For example, an introvert may even hate an active lifestyle and will be satisfied with the opposite approach to life in old age. It would certainly be good if all seniors were aware that inactivity has negative consequences and can ultimately lead to the breakdown of the psyche of the entire personality. It is very difficult for a person who has been passive all his life to become an individual living an active way of life in old age. In most cases, aging is a continuation of the previous lifestyle and therefore it is necessary to start with an active approach as soon as possible (Hamilton 1999).

People must know the importance of early preparation for aging, develop extracurricular activities, education, the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and preventive measures. There is a significant connection between an active lifestyle and a person's health. In the same way, education, partner cohabitation and lifelong optimistic attitude towards life have a significant influence on experiencing an active life. It is clear from surveys conducted in recent years that there is a direct connection between life satisfaction and the ability to take an active approach to life. The overall satisfaction of a senior is higher if he remains an optimist, engages in various activities and hobbies, and if he has at least unplanned preparation for old age (Kuchařová et al. 2002).

According to Čoraničová (2007), senior education is a symbol of the new, active, purposeful and informed approach of the senior citizen himself to his life. For the first time, educational activities appeared in the 1970s as a new phenomenon in education. Today, there is also a scientific discipline, called geragogy, which is focused on the education of seniors. The significant increase of seniors in our society requires the further development of seniors' education, but this form of education and training is currently lacking in many places. Other factors of the need for education are the lengthening life time of seniors in old age and the search for new models of aging. Today's seniors have different requirements for retirement than seniors in the past. Nowadays, the quality and dignity of life in old age is increasingly demanded. It is education that can contribute to improving the existence of older generations. Despite the fact that education is not one of the basic human needs, we recommend it among higher needs, it certainly has its meaning. It can bring many new stimuli to the old person in the following years in his personal interest. And that is not enough, because it contributes to the overall life satisfaction of seniors.

We can understand the mission of education both in relation to the individual and to our entire society. Appropriate education can make it easier for seniors to understand the meaning of human life, the role of individual life phases, and thus deserve a better adaptation to life in old age. Another task of educational activities is to enable older people to follow up, stimulate and maintain developmental potential, to develop the satisfaction of educational and interest needs, to influence the correct behavior, attitudes and values ​​of a person, as well as the means to induce optimism and enrichment of older people. For society, senior education means the possibility of social support for life in old age, it can change other people's views on older age and increase intergenerational solidarity and respect for older individuals. Of course, we have to take into account the individuality of each person. Not everyone will search for educational programs or show interest in them. It will be different for a person with a positive outlook on the future, with a lifelong interest in education, who has no worries, and otherwise, education will be understood by an individual who has given up everything and indulges in inactivity at retirement age, or is seriously ill. Appropriate education should start much earlier and education should meaningfully follow it. It should also be remembered that a senior citizen living in a village will probably have much less opportunity to participate in education than a person living in a city. Education has not yet become a regular part of the lives of our seniors, and seniors may not even know that educational activities are taking place somewhere. In the future, seniors' education will be an integral part of seniors' lives, but even then it will not reach everyone (Čoraničová, 2007). As Bragdon and Gamon (2002) state, most educational programs take place within the framework of tertiary education. However, these universities are not able to accommodate the entire group of seniors. It is therefore necessary to make the educational activity visible in other places and to make it accessible to seniors in more remote areas of the country. The education of people of any age is important, because it is a well-known fact that what a person does not use, he will lose over time. The increasing incidence of dementia in the elderly is an alarming fact for our society.

Conclusion

Any form of self-education, acquiring new knowledge and insights, as well as regular meetings of people of retirement age, contribute to the full survival of life in old age, and therefore the whole society should try to make all the mentioned activities available to as many seniors as possible. Through educational programs, older people can get a higher rating and a sense of satisfaction from the activities they perform. They can also establish new friendships, spend quality free time, improve their prerequisites for non-work activities and avoid feeling lonely or unnecessary for society (Haškovcová 2000).

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