Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

This study examines the effects of family solidarity and age-friendly environments on the perception of age integration and suggests measures that can increase the perception of age integration. In order to examine the varying characteristics of different generations, study participants were divided into three groups of adolescent, mid-age, and elderly. The data were analyzed using HLM (hierarchical linear modeling) with a two-level approach to reflect the nested complexion of the data. Individual qualities were set as level-one predictor and district qualities were set as level-two predictor. The result of this study are as follows. The level-one predictor that influenced more than two age groups included associational solidarity, affectional solidarity, and physical environment. Mid-age and elderly groups showed higher perception of age integration with lower associational solidarity, while adolescent and mid-age groups showed higher perception of age integration with higher affectional solidarity, and adolescent and elderly groups showed higher perception of age integration with higher age-friendliness of physical environment. For the level-two predictor, higher percentage of the elderlie in the district led to higher perception of age integration for the mid-age group. The results of this study contributes in finding alternative methods to increase the perception of age integration in today’s aging society.