노인에 대한 혐오⋅배제가 노인의 자살생각 에 미치는 영향 : 자아존중감의 매개효과를 중심으로

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of elderly discrimination on suicidal thoughts of the elderly and to examine the mediating effect of self-esteem under the circumstance of antipathy and rejection of the elderly in aging society. The research selected 4,666 subjects aged over 65 from the 11th Korea Welfare Panel. Frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and bivariate logistic regression analysis were conducted with SPSS WIN 22.0. The results showed that the average point for elderly discrimination was 2.597 (SD .523), which was lower than the average level. The result of bivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the elderly discrimination affects suicidal thoughts as a whole, and the sub-variables such as discrimination related to health, family, occupations had effect on suicidal thoughts, whereas the social discrimination had no effect. In addition, the mediation effect of self-esteem was tested through the Sobel test, and the result showed that it was statistically significant. Based on the results, the author made some suggestions in terms of policies and social welfare practice to prevent the elderly discrimination and the suicide among the elderly and to increase self-esteem of the elderly.