Loneliness of senior citizens from urban and rural environment and its determinants. Polish experiences

This article aims to diagnose the levels of loneliness of seniors from urban and rural areas in the Świętokrzyskie Province in Poland and its determinants. 62 seniors were surveyed (30 from the city and 32 from the countryside). To measure the level of loneliness during the research, the Rasch Loneliness Scale (S-Rasch) was used, whose authors are J. de Jong-Gireveld and F. Kamphuis, and the Polish adaptation of which was made by Józef Rembowski. The determinants of loneliness were investigated using the method of unfinished sentences, such as: I feel lonely because ...; I don’t feel lonely because…. Although the research results are territorially limited to a small part of Poland and structurally limited to members of seniors’ clubs or the university of the third age, they indicate and confirm a certain regularity: the greater the number and quality of relationships with people, the lower the level of loneliness. Therefore, interpersonal relationships, their quantity and quality, significantly affect the experience of loneliness in the old age.