Challenging Gerontophobia and Ageism Through a Collaborative Intergenerational Art Program

Prejudices against older adults have been shown to reduce effective care delivery and impact long-term health outcomes for older adults. In an effort to combat these prejudices, intergenerational—and often unidirectional—programs focus on challenging ageism. The PALETTE program takes this further to employ collaborative activities as a way to challenge the gerontophobia that often accompanies ageism. Promoting Art for Life Enrichment Through Transgenerational Engagement (PALETTE) is an innovative program for interprofessional undergraduate and graduate students that combines intergenerational arts activities with formal education on aging, ageism, and gerontophobia. Having demonstrated success in changing the attitudes of students, PALETTE serves as a model for an internationally replicable program that has the potential to improve person-centered care while educating future generations of older adults about positive, optimal aging.     

Aging in a critical world: The search for generational intelligence

Critical gerontology attempts a radical approach to adult ageing drawing on both the personal experience of older adults and their relationship to social and structural inequality. In this paper the author uses personal historical experience to chart a critical approach to intergenerational relationships and draw out lessons and new directions for a revitalised critical approach to adult ageing. The concept of generational intelligence is introduced, as a joint project with another author, and as a bridge toward future intergenerational solidarities.     

Enhancing Gerontology Education

Abstract

Co-learning opportunities for elders and students may enhance the ability to make course information “real” for traditional students and provide elders with new relationships that can reduce stereotypical thinking about younger people. A Human Development and Aging course taught at Kansas State University in the Spring of 2003 brought eighteen young adult students and eighteen auditors from a retirement community together to explore their understanding of aging issues. Based on evaluations through focus groups and written surveys, older and younger participants alike experienced changes in their attitudes toward persons of age groups other than their own.     

Patterns of exchange and intergenerational responsibilities after divorce and remarriage

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of reciprocal and nonreciprocal patterns of exchange on beliefs about intergenerational responsibilities in parent–child and stepparent–stepchild relationships. A national sample of 1044 adults responded to a multiple segment factorial survey. Normative responsibilities to assist kin were greater than to assist step-kin and normative responsibilities to assist an older family member were greater when patterns of exchanges were reciprocal than when they were not. The open-ended responses and quantitative data suggest ambiguous views of intergenerational transfers.     

Intergenerational Interaction Through Reminiscence Processes

Abstract

Introduction: The interest in intergenerational programmes is increasing. However, there is a need for evaluation and the development of a theoretical framework to explain the mechanism of changes in attitudes of participants which is the purpose of this paper.

Method: From July to December 2002 an intergenerational intervention was conducted with 111 students and 32 elders, who shared their life stories during class time. A Focus group technique was used to evaluate the programme and a theoretical framework was developed to explain the mechanism of changes in attitudes of adolescents towards elders and the attitudes of elders towards adolescents.

Results: The results showed that stereotypes and prejudice exist, from young people towards elders and from elders towards young ones. The theoretical framework developed showed why and how participants changed their views towards each other in an intergenerational programme using reminiscence processes as a means of interaction.

Conclusion: Although the study had some limitations, it was valuable in showing that older people had some negative images of adolescents. It also showed why and how participants changed their view towards each other.     

Intergenerational Connections Through Book Discussion Groups

Abstract

Learning about intergenerational programming prepares health care professionals to be more competent and compassionate in working with a changing society. A unique teaching approach using intergenerational book discussion groups helps students learn about elders and provides a mutually beneficial experience. Assumptions, myths and biases held by each generation are often dispelled. Values and beliefs are clarified as members from differing generations learn about similarities and honor differences. The assignment becomes more than a technical learning situation and becomes one where friendships evolve and a deep respect for others develops. This article discusses how to plan and implement an intergenerational book discussion group for application within a variety of settings.     

Harvard Crooners: Building Intergenerational Relationships Through Participatory Music Making

The world is rapidly aging, and yet aging is fraught with many difficulties. In particular, the rights of older people to participate fully in cultural life are frequently not met. To help address this issue, we propose an innovative model for intergenerational, participatory music-making between younger people and older people. Specifically, instead of giving traditional, non-participatory performances for older people as is commonly done in nursing homes and other elderly institutions, we advocate for engaging seniors in collective music-making and singing. We believe this kind of collective music-making will better meet the rights of older adults to participate in cultural life and will lead to stronger intergenerational relationships.     

Mindfulness, vulnerability, and love: Spiritual lessons from frail elders, earnest young pilgrims, and middle aged rockers

Gerontologists have studied religion and spirituality for almost three decades. Much of this work focuses on determining how elders' religious and spiritual beliefs and practices affect various indicators of well-being. This paper critiques many of the assumptions underlying this research and suggests alternatives to individualistic formulations of well-being. Experiences in spiritual communities of various types may help aging persons to be mindfully present to others, to recognize that all are vulnerable to the afflictions of aging and the certainty of death, and to love and care for others while working to promote justice. In this paper, I describe how my marriage to a minister enabled me to develop relationships with frail elders and young adults seeking to live faithfully. These friends have influenced my work and have helped to shape my views on my own aging.     

Families in Later Life: A Decade in Review

Later-life families encompass the legal, biological, romantic, and kin-like relationships of persons ages 65 and older. Research on older families has flourished over the past decade, as population aging has intensified concerns regarding the capacities of families to care for older adults and the adequacy of public pension systems to provide an acceptable standard of living. Shifting patterns of family formation over the past half-century have created a context in which contemporary older adults' family lives differ markedly from earlier generations. Decreasing numbers of adults are growing old with their first and only spouse, with rising numbers divorcing, remarrying, forming non-marital romantic partnerships, or living single by choice. Remarriage and the formation of stepfamilies pose challenges and opportunities as older adults negotiate complex decisions such as inheritance and caregiving. Family relationships are consequential for older adults' well-being, operating through both biological and psychosocial mechanisms. We synthesize research from the past decade, revealing how innovations in data and methods have refined our understanding of late-life families against a backdrop of demographic change. We show how contemporary research refines classic theoretical frameworks and tests emerging conceptual models. We organize the article around two main types of family relationships: (1) marriage and romantic partnerships and (2) intergenerational relationships. We discuss how family caregiving occurs within these relationships, and offer three promising avenues for future research: ethnic minority and immigrant families; older adults without close kin (“elder orphans”); and the potentials of rapidly evolving technologies for intergenerational relationships and caregiving.     

Geographic distance and intergenerational relationships in Chinese migrant families

ABSTRACT

This study examines the effect of adult Chinese migrants’ geographic distance from home on their intergenerational relationships with parents who remain behind. We compared monetary and family care support as well as emotional relationships among four parent-child groups: older adults and international migrant children, older adults and internal migrant children (who migrated to other cities in China), older adults and coresiding children, and older adults and local children (living in the same city as their parents). Data were derived from 332 older adults in Beijing, China, with at least one child who migrated to another country or city. Results from chi-square tests, anaylsis of variance (ANOVA) tests, and regression analyses indicate that international and internal migrant children maintain similar intergenerational relationships with their parents, and that both of those groups are less likely than coresiding and local children to have family care exchanges and emotionally close relationships with their parents. The results may help professionals develop supportive services and policies for older adults in migrant families.     

Active aging—spunky survivorship? Discourses and experiences of the years beyond breast cancer

Recent critical gerontology has drawn attention to the origins, functions and consequences for elders of the ‘successful aging’ discourse. In this paper we describe parallels between successful aging and what we are calling ‘spunky survivorship,’ the contemporary subject position made available to women in the years after a breast cancer diagnosis. The central focus of the paper is a study about the intersections between a dominant discourse of breast cancer survivorship, and the perceptions and experiences of women living the years beyond breast cancer. It is our hope that the analysis presented here will suggest new pathways for exploring the relationship between discourses of successful aging and people's ideas and feelings about growing older.     

TimeOut@UCLA: An Intergenerational Respite Care and Workforce Development Program

TimeOut@UCLA is an intergenerational program that recruits undergraduate college students to provide companionship to older adults with early Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia in a community setting, providing respite for their caregivers. In the program, 86 students and 89 seniors participated from September 2015 to December 2016. This program appears to reinforce positive attitudes about working with older adults among undergraduate students and gives caregivers an innovative option for respite time.     

Is that all there is? The concept of care and the dialectic of critique

Recognition of the usefulness of critical social analysis for gerontology has been increasing just as a range of new problems, ranging from globalization to the anti-aging movement, are posing fresh questions about ideology, legitimation and inequality for the study of aging. Such problems and questions represent the negative moment of critique in the theory–practice dialectic. As is generally true of critical theory, in critical gerontology it is rare to find research that reflects a positive movement toward emancipatory change. Yet gerontology is one of the fields that offers special opportunities for critiquing the status quo of aging and elders in society, envisioning new possibilities for aging and developing practices that produce positive change. This paper describes the movement of our own thinking and work, away from a primary focus on analysis and critique and toward an embrace of the possibilities of generating and sustaining change in organizational care settings. We argue that principles of critical developmental and social theory can be used to reframe the concept of care, and we describe briefly how the methodology of action research can be applied in efforts to create new opportunities and possibilities in the everyday experience of elders in long-term care. In our work, we are learning how a constructive theory–practice dialectic can be initiated when critical principles are applied to a practical and urgent domain — the domain of interpersonal care within long-term care institutions for elders.     

Older Lesbian and Gay People:

Using a theoretical model of lesbian and gay identity formation, this paper examines the complex relationships between families and older gay and lesbian adults as a way to better understand the extensive variations individuals have in their relationships with themselves, presentation of self, relationships with others and their behaviors. Three potential styles of lesbian and gay identity formation are described in order to highlight the structures and dynamics involved in issues for gay and lesbian elders and their families. It is argued that by challenging heterosexism and by minimizing homophobia, older lesbian and gay people experience a successful aging process. While individuals w R o are lesbian and gay have great potential to age with a sense of power, ride and fulfillment, so do the families from which they came an those they have created.     

Families in the Middle and Later Years: A Review and Critique of Research in the 1990s

Research on families in the middle and later years came into its own during the 1990s, documenting the complexity, malleability, and variety of older family connections. We examined 908 articles on family gerontology topics, observing 4 trends: Conceptually, an appreciation for pluralism and resilience as individuals and families age is apparent. Theoretically, life course, feminist, socioemotional selectivity, and family solidarity theories are increasingly applied to intergenerational family relations. Methodologically, new interest in qualitative methods for studying diverse groups has improved the depth with which aging studies can account for variability in old age; new quantitative methodologies have allowed greater sophistication in dealing with longitudinal data. Substantively, there is greater understanding of family caregiving, social support, parent‐child relationships, marital transitions, and grandparenting relationships. The field is poised to take even greater risks in fulfilling the promise of studying linked lives over time.     

The Effects of Subjective Age and Aging Attitudes on Mid- to Late-Life Sexuality

This study examined the effects of subjective age and attitudes about aging on frequency of sex and interest in sexual activity among middle-aged and older adults. Data were drawn from two waves of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study (n = 1,170 adults, mean age Time 1 = 53.70 years, SD = 9.08). Regression analyses were used to investigate the effects of subjective age and attitudes about aging on three measures of sexuality: frequency of sex, perceived quality of sexual activity, and interest in sexual activity, over 10 years. The older participants felt and the less positive their views of aging, the less they rated sexual activity as enjoyable over time. Feeling older (though not attitudes about aging) also predicted less interest in sex. Subjective age and beliefs about aging did not have an impact on frequency of sex. Although frequency of sex was not predicted by subjective aging and aging attitudes, the results suggested that subjective age and stereotypic views on aging may shape the experience of sex in later life.     

Exploring social work students’ attitudes towards feminism: opening up conversations

This paper reports on findings from a 2013 study of UK social work students’ attitudes towards feminism and the perceived relevance of feminist theory to social work practice. Building on an earlier, single-university exploration of students’ views, the study made use of social media (Twitter) to access opinions of students from seven universities across the UK using an online survey tool. Whilst it is not possible to make generalising claims based on ‘opt in’ research of this nature, the findings are nevertheless suggestive of some important issues for those working with social work students today. Principally, they showed that understandings of feminism in the student cohort were diverse and may be very different to the feminism that an older generation of academic and fieldwork educators may have grown up with. The article argues that it is important, in the light of this, to interrogate what we mean by feminism in our work with students. This will then allow us to open up wider conversations about power, agency and structure, thus bringing greater criticality and reflexivity to our teaching and learning.     

Building a Humane Society for Older People: Compassionate Policy Making for Integration,Participation, and Positive Ageing Within a Framework of Intergenerational Solidarity

This article explores the global challenge of population aging with a specific focus on the concepts of integration and participation of older people in society within the context of “realizing a society for all ages” as promoted by the United Nations. It is proposed that governments worldwide need to embrace new ways of thinking about population aging that include strategic initiatives for strengthening the social contract that fosters generational interdependence. The meaning of “positive aging” is explored at both the individual and social levels, with implications for quality-of-life issues involving intergenerational relationships. The point is made that while the promotion of positive aging is commendable on both philosophical and health grounds it can be problematic for those older people who for a range of legitimate reasons are unable to fulfill the notion of positive or active aging. The longevity revolution will require the emergence of a more humane society that undertakes to reconceptualize what older age means, together with exploring new ways of enhancing the citizenship status of older people through the development and promotion of innovative intergenerational relationships. A call is made for a wider engagement of the citizenry in the processes involved in the formulation and implementation of policy making.