The Relationship of Social Groups: Empirical Evidence from Ukraine and Lithuania

Despite of the fact that the notion of relationships of social groups is sufficiently researched in Sociology, Political Science, Economics and other sciences, the interest among representatives of Social Studies in this concept doesn’t fall off. Taking the above mentioned into consideration, the aim of the study is to substantiate the implementation of relationships of social groups as a technology, identify methodological approaches for assessing the state of relationships of the social group's accumulation and individual or group level perception. The object of research is a relationship of social groups as an attribute of social development. The subject of research includes relationships of social groups’s forms of accumulation and realization as technology of social work with the elderly. To conduct a qualitative study, the authors developed a model for conducting research and authors’ questionnaires. The study involved 320 people: 160 elderly people were from Ukraine, 160 people were from Siauliai (Lithuania). The obtained data were subjected to the statistical processing and further their qualitative interpretation and generalization. On the basis of empirical research it has been shown that the development of measures aimed at the accumulation and realization of the relationship of social group, both in Ukraine and in Lithuania can make elderly people more active in self-organization and mutual assistance in solving vital needs and interests. The proposed author's model for the formation and implementation of the relationship of social group made it possible to define a number of recommendations for employees of social services.