Perspective to old age of young people attending high school: Example of Giresun province

The fertility rate has decreased, average life expectancy and elderly population has increased since the development in science, technology and medicine after the industrial revolution. In this case, aging has an important phenomenon in today's societies included in Turkey. The aging of societies will be results such social, economic, political, phychological etc. in future. The main purpose of this study is determine the young people perspective on old age and a relatively disadvantaged group of old people wia the view of the students who are attending high school in Giresun. In this context, determining the viewpoint of the young people today that they will be elder in future, is so important. Also, the importance of this research that being the limited number of studies examining young people's perspective on old age in sociology in our country. In addition, this study is also important because of the being first about young people's perspectives on old age in Giresun. In the scope of the research, an in-depth interview was conducted with 60 students that the lower, middle and upper socio-economic level of young people attending in high schools in the city center of Giresun. The main findings of this study can be summarize that majority of students defined as "elder" 60 and over, they descripted old age as desease, think that elder will be happier in their own homes with their family in nature, claimed that the most important problems of elders are health problems, and state that traffic and road safety poses a danger for the elders in the Giresun province. Besides, they emphasize that the importance of social and health service, age friendly city, public space design, and public policies should be done for elders in Giresun province. Additionally, according to the young, especially disabled people and women are more disadvantaged among the elders.