Abstract

In accordance with current demographic trends, i.e. the lengthening of lifespan and the growth of the proportion of seniors in the overall population, the functioning of the elderly is increasingly becoming the subject of analytical studies. The purpose of the article is to illustrate the convictions of people at different stages of adulthood about the functioning of older people in the family, taking into account the differences in perception between school and academic youth. A research problem is: What are the convictions of people at different stages of adulthood about the functioning of older people in the family and are there differences in perception between school and academic youth? We used a survey by A. Kanios, M. Czechowska-Bieluga, A. Weissbrot-Koziarska, R. Krawczyk, P. Zielińska. In 2018/2019 research into among 1084 junior high school and students from Polish voivodships (Opole Voivodeship, Silesian Voivodeship, Podlasie Voivodeship, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Lublin Voivodeship, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, Masovian Voivodeship, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, and Podkarpackie Voivodeship) was conducted. The research allowed to show the image of family life in the perception of high school and academic youth from a gerontological perspective.