title: [Education in the 2d half of life--counteraction to social and cultural deprivation in the elderly?].
abstract: During recent years universities have increasingly attracted men and women of middle age and old age. On the basis on a sample of appr. 350 fully enrolled students age 45 and over, drawn from the official 1980 students' census in Lower Saxony, we describe the group of older students in terms of age, sex, education, and social status, in order to compare their characteristical structure to the normal students. We, furthermore, formulate hypotheses on their attitudes toward learning in later years, their motives to choose the university, and their personal as well as social aspirations. Obvious are their need to orientate themselves in a critical life situation, and their need to actualize knowledge and skills in order to minimize the adverse effects of social segregation. We perceive the middle aged and older persons' return to university studies as a paradigm both for an individual's active reaction toward prescribed social obsolescence, and as a valuable attempt to reestablish intergenerational relations.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D001290:Attitude; D004496:Education, Continuing / Q000639:trends*; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D005860:Germany, West; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011610:Psychosocial Deprivation; D012917:Social Adjustment
vernacular_title: Studieren in der zweiten Lebenshälfte--Gegenströmung zur sozialen und kulturellen Verarmung im Alter?