Investigation of the relationship between successful aging and attitudes towards aging and old age of adults aged 18-65

Aging is a process that begins the moment the baby falls into the mother's womb and continues throughout his life. Old age is the last inevitable period of life. Considering this information, it can be said that both an infant and an advanced adult are in the aging process. Successful aging means that an individual takes precautions to protect his/her health, be healthy physically, cognitively, psychologically and socially, and behaves wisely in advanced adulthood. It is known that perceptions and attitudes begin to form in childhood and develop in adulthood. An individual's perception and attitude towards aging and aging has an impact on his or her successful aging process and old age. For this reason, it is thought that the relationship between young and middle adults' attitudes towards aging and old age and successful aging behaviors will contribute to the field of social work. The subject of this thesis is to examine the relationship between the attitudes of adults aged 18-65 towards aging and old age and successful aging. In this direction, the scope of the research consists of the socio-demographic characteristics, attitudes towards aging and old age, and successful aging behaviors of adults between the ages of 18-65 living in Ankara. A socio-demographic information form, Attitudes towards Aging and Aging Scale, and Successful Aging Scale were applied to the participants who were determined using the snowball sampling method. Then, the obtained data were analyzed through the SPSS package program. According to the results obtained, it is revealed that the successful aging behaviors of the participants are high. The participants' attitudes towards aging and old age are at a moderate level. It was concluded that there is a significant relationship between successful aging and the attitudes of the participants towards aging and aging. According to this relationship, as successful aging behavior increases, negative attitudes towards aging and old age decrease. Keywords. successful aging, attitude, aging, old age, adult