title: The social relations of the elderly.
abstract: The aim of the study was to investigate the social life of the elderly, their level of satisfaction with friendships and their opinions on loneliness and their ability to be alone in old age. A cognitive deterioration test was administered to 956 self-sufficient elderly people. This was a scale to assess their perception of loneliness and a questionnaire on their opinion of loneliness. From the descriptive analyses and comparison with the average results, it appears that elderly people are fairly satisfied with their social life and they believe that loneliness can condition the quality of life and the ability to be alone. The research also revealed that environmental characteristics and social integration are important for achieving a satisfactory lifestyle.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy. paola.cavallero@psico.unifi.it <paola.cavallero@psico.unifi.it>
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cavallero
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Morino-Abbele
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bertocci
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008132:Loneliness / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012919:Social Behavior