Who can you trust? Changes in political, institutional, and social trust among older adults in Ostrobothnia

Authors

• Marina Näsman Åbo Akademi
• Fredrica Nyqvist Fakulteten för pedagogik och välfärdsstudier, Åbo Akademi https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6554-8040
• Marina Lindell Fakulteten för samhällsvetenskaper och ekonomi, Åbo Akademi
• Mikael Nygård Fakulteten för pedagogik och välfärdsstudier, Åbo Akademi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3928-4114
• Siv Björklund Fakulteten för pedagogik och välfärdsstudier, Åbo Akademi

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37452/politiikka.91037

Keywords:

trust, social capital, older adults, language

Abstract

Trusting other people and societal institutions is crucial for social cohesion. Previous research indicates that there has been a decrease in the level of trust in Finland during the last decades. However, this has not been investigated among older adults specifically. The aim of this study is to investigate changes in political, institutional, and social trust from 2005 to 2016 among older Swedish-speaking and Finnish-speaking adults. The data were derived from the Gerontological Regional Database (GERDA) survey conducted in the region of Ostrobothnia, Finland. The sample included 65- and 75-year-olds and consisted of 1545 individuals in 2005 and 1742 individuals in 2016. Logistic regression was used to estimate the probability of having high trust according to year and language group in each trust measure while adjusting for various sociodemographic factors. The level of political and institutional trust was significantly lower in 2016 compared to 2005, while there was no statistically significant change in the level of social trust. Further, the changes in the trust measures varied between the language groups. The decrease in trust found in this study is a potential threat to social capital, which is an important facilitator for active aging, and should therefore be acknowledged and investigated further.