earticle

영어

The purpose of this study was to examine the level of anxiety about economic change in middle-aged and elderly people and to analyze the factors that influence this anxiety. The data, derived from Korean General Social Survey(KGSS) were collected from Survey Research Center of Sung Kyun Kwan University. The samples included 821 people over the age of 40, including 529 middle-aged people who were from 40 to 59, and elderly people who were over 60. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the research model. The findings from the analysis showed that age and subjective economic status had crucial effects on the entire group’s anxiety about unemployment and poverty, housing prices, financial markets, and economic recession in the older life. For the middle-aged group, age in particular had crucial effects on all the components of its anxiety about economic change. For the elderly group, geographical region was the most critical factor that affected its anxiety about economic change, the elderly people who were living in metropolitan area and towns had more anxiety than those who were living in rural areas. In particular, region was the only factor that affected the elderly group’s anxiety about financial markets, and economic recession. These results showed that specific age of middle-aged and elderly people had the crucial effects while their sex, educational level, and the employment status of their spouse had no effects on their anxiety about economic change. Objective economic indices such as their earned-income and other income including savings and pensions had no effects on their anxiety level. While as noted above subjective economic indices such as their standard of living compared with their parents, projected economic status, and level of socio-economic success had an effect on anxiety about economic change.