SENSITIVITY FOR VIOLENCE AGAINST THE ELDERLY IN THE FAMILY - THE SCALE DEVELOPMENT AND THE FIRST RESULTS

The purpose of the paper is to present the development of The Scale of Sensitivity to Violence against the Elderly and the preliminary data on the sensitivity of professionals and students to this problem. The research was conducted on an adequate sample of 334 respondents: 38% were professionals, and 62% were students. The Scale of Sensitivity was composed of 35 parts, which are answered ON to the Likert scale of 5 degrees. Possible answers are given on a scale ranging from 35 to 175. Smaller result on the scale suggests a higher sensitivity to the problem of violence against the elderly. Although both groups show sensitivity to the problem of violence against the elderly, professionals (M =55.25, SD = 13.81) are more sensitive than the students (MD =60.31; SD = 13.93). On the overall sample (N=334), from more than 20% of the respondents a relatively high presence of neutral statements "neither agree, nor disagree" was observed concerning the statements that reflect the opinion that the behaviour of the elderly leads to their abuse, that life together in the same premises and the everyday interaction between the generations leads to the violence against the elderly, and the statements that relativize the violence against the elderly. Both professionals and students consider that the state's care for the elderly persons exposed to violence is poor.