Osamotnienie starych mieszkańców Gdańska – kwestie metodyczne oraz zaistniałe zróżnicowania

Abstract

The article is devoted to a few important issues connected with loneliness experienced by the elderly. The author shortly describes crucial methodological questions: how to define and how to recognize a level of loneliness. The author presents chosen results from a research done in Gdańsk (face-to-face interviews, random sample of 1500 older citizens 65+). Analysis allows verifying a popular old age stereotype presenting almost each older person as a lonely person. The author presents also various factors, which differentiate the frequency of perceived by older person loneliness as sex, age, marital status, level of education, quality of family relations, having friends, contacts with neighbours, organization membership or financial situation.