The need for intergenerational solidarity. Does age matter?

Ronald Schoenmaeckers, Centrum voor Bevolkings - en Gezinsstudie (CBGS)
Lieve Vanderleyden
Marc Callens, CBGS, Belgium

In facing the socio-economic problems related to ‘population ageing’ researchers and especially policy makers underline the need for ‘intergenerational solidarity’ (cf. the Commission’s ‘Green Paper’). According to results of the international DIALOG programme a majority (70%) of European citizens considers the rising number of older persons as something to be worried about. Moreover, the attitude citizens have toward elderly and their position in society appears to be largely dependent upon age; young people showing a less positive attitude than others. (The other important determinant would be sex; with women have a more positive attitude). The purpose of the paper is to further analyse these provisional findings. For example, to what extent is attitude also a function of better knowledge (on demographic developments)? And how to explain the (important) differences that are observed between countries? The multivariate technique used will be GLM.