Loneliness In Later Life: Comparative Study Of Eu And Russia

Abstract

Subjective measure of loneliness is necessary since the perception of being lonely is individually constructed by the discrepancy between the expected inner content of social interactions and their objective content which can be observed by other people. The exact parameters of this discrepancy and the outcome it may have are individual as well and can hardly be observed by the third parties. Policy-makers often consider older adults as a social group which might be having special characteristics and researchers assume that loneliness and social isolation are most probably one of them. The changes in older adults’ work and family roles, future time perspectives, changes in health, in surrounding environment, social and economic status, living conditions and consumer behaviour, make them oriented mainly on inner experiences and may result in loss of life goals and the meaning of life. In this paper loneliness and social isolation are studied on the basis of ESS dataset and sociological surveys, conducted in Tomsk region (2014-2017). Comparative study of loneliness in EU countries shows that the share of people who feel themselves lonely is greater in Eastern European countries than in Western European. Loneliness and social isolation in Russia is greater than in EU countries.