亞洲社會如何看待老年人？-老人意象的國際比較

Abstract

高齡化是全球的趨勢，亞洲快速高齡化更是各界關注焦點。俗諺說，家有一老如有一寶，但我們真的有把老年人當成寶嗎？本研究放眼亞洲主要國家，分別從「是否同意老年人在政經資源使用過多」、「是否對老年人有好感」兩個面向探討比較亞洲社會對於老年人的意象。 本研究使用第六波《世界價值觀調查》資料，透過亞洲主要國家樣本，發現兩種意象是同時存在的，亞洲社會似乎認為老年人是社會的負擔，但也同時對於老年人帶有好感。亞洲社會對老年人的意象與世代認同、資源競爭及個人價值有關，以華人為主的社會型態，對於老年人較有好感，臺灣對於老年人帶有矛盾的情感，儘管認為老年人政治經濟資源使用過多，但仍然對於老年人抱持好感，中國對於老年人的親善態度明確，香港、新加坡持平，日本及韓國則相對偏低。未婚者對於老年人的看法較為負面，社會階層的高低，也影響對於老年人的評價。另外，老年世代看老年人較負面，值得關注。 超高齡社會來臨，社會應該更同理老年人，轉化社會對於老年人的刻板印象，提升老年世代對於「老年人」的自我評價。政府身為政策制定者，應該瞭解並同理老年人，甚至轉化社會對於老年人的意象，以推動更有利於超高齡社會的措施。

Aging is a global issue, especially in Asia. As the saying goes elders are treasures, but do we really treat the elderly as treasures? This research explore from two aspects, ' Does the society agree that the elderly get too much political and economic resources? ' and ' Does the society like the elderly?” This study uses the wave 6 of World Value Survey to compare Asian societies' views on the elderly through samples of Asian countries. Result: two views exist at the same time. Although Asian societies consider the elderly to be social burden, they have good impressions of the elderly. Countries/ Societies where majority of residents are Chinese decent or have a deep Chinese root respect senior citizen more has a positive view of the elderly. Among them, Taiwan has conflicting feelings about the elderly. People in Taiwan think that the elderly get too much political and economic resources, they still have good attitude towards the elderly. In addition, People in China have good attitude towards the elderly, Hong Kong and Singapore are flat, and Japan and South Korea are relatively low. Besides, unmarried people have a negative view of the elderly, and the level of social class also affects the evaluation of the elderly. From the results of the study, we notice that the 65+ generations felt more negatively to the elderly. With the advent of the super-aged society, we should be more empathetic to the elderly, transforming stereotypes of the elderly, and enhancing the self-evaluation of the elderly. As a policy maker, the government should help promote measures that are more conducive to the super-aged society.