Intergenerational solidarity in the eyes of Czech and Slovak youth

1. Intergenerational solidarity in the eyes of Czech and Slovak youth Jana Levická Zuzana Truhlářová Riga, November 2012

2. Structure of the presentation • Aims • Intergenerational solidarity • Methodology • Research questions • Sample • Results • Discussion

3. Aims • Find out how the youth is perceiving the intergenerational solidarity • Compare the attitudes of Czech and Slovak youth

4. Introduction • Increased interest in the relationship between different age goups • Interpersonal relationships as a factor with a strong influence on the quality of life

5. Intergenerational solidarity • „Bonding between individuals of different ages in multigenerational family networks and among different age groups in the community.“ (Bengston, 2012) • Perceived to be a basic moral principle and one of the pillars of social policy (Botek, 2009, Tomeš, 2010)

6. Czech Republic and Slovak Republic • 1. January 1993 – establishment of Czeh Republic and Slovak Republic (as separete countries) • CzechRepublic – more liberal; Slovakia – more traditional – is this present nowadays in young people’s attitudes?

7. Methodology • Research questions: • Are there any differencies in the attitude towards seniors depending on participant’s country of origin? • Are there any differencies in attitude towards seniors depending on the participant’s sex?

8. Methodology • Qantitavivedesign • Questionnaire • SPSS 19 for Windows • Mann-Whitney test

9. Sample • 730 high school students: • 369 from Slovakia • 361 from Czech Republic • Age: 15 – 20 years (M = 16,7; SD = 1,25) • Sex: 44,5% girls, 55,5% boys

10. SLOVAKyouth more agreethat: peopleshouldretireassoonastheyreachretirementage thegovernmentshouldcreatejobsfortheyoung and notemployretirees thepensionsshouldbeincreased seniorsshouldhelptheiradultchildren adult „children“ havetheobligation to takecareoftheirparents CZECHyouth more agreethat: theretirementageshouldbeextended to 70 yearsofage seniors do notneedanydiscounts on travelling, museumvisits, etc. theirrelationshipwiththeirgrandparentsisbetterthantherelationshipwiththeirownparents Results - Differencesaccording to COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

11. Results - Differences according to SEX: BOYS more agree that: • it is good when in one household do live more generations • retirement should be person’s own decision (no age limit) • the pensions should be increased • the government should create jobs for the young and not employ retirees • seniors do not need any discounts on travelling, museum visits, etc.

12. Results - Differences according to SEX: • GIRLS more likely claim that: • they like to listen to the life stories of their grandparents • they like to spend their free time with their grandparents

13. Discussion • The attitude towards seniors correspondates with the social climate of respective countries, mainly with the perception of family in society • Slovak youth perceive seniors as an obstacle to their self-realization in the labor market • Communications of politicians - the government of Slovakia still emphasizes its good deeds towards seniors, but the younger generation seems to remaine overlooked

14. Discussion • Slovak public is convinced that pensions are very low • Slovak society is more conservative – obligation to take care as normative solidarity

15. Conclusion • It is impossible to reduce the attitude of young people to seniors to a matter touching merely different generations. • Future research: identification of factors affecting the quality of relationships between generations • to develop strategies leading to strengthening of the intergenerational solidarity of youth

16. This paper has been written under the project ESF - 2.3 Development and maintenance of multidisciplinary scientific and research team for contemporary family studies at the University of Hradec Kralove.