Exploratory Older
Adult Developmental Transitions
Editor:
Susan S. Meyers, Extension Family Sociologist
University of Minnesota Extension Service, Specialist Research Report,
April 1992 (reviewed 2001)
University
of Minnesota Children, Youth & Family Consortium. Permission is
granted to create and distribute copies of this document for non-commercial
purposes provided that the author and CYFC receive acknowledgement and
this notice is included.
Gerontologists
have encouraged increased attention to the later years to determine
if there are predictable patterns occurring in the later years. This
paper is an early attempt to identify some of the complex relationships
in key transitions in the later years. Some of these transitions are
work related; others are family related; still others are looking at
historical and societal perspectives encompassing centuries. We will
begin with insights from theoretical perspectives on normal aging.
Continuity
Theory of Normal Aging
Continuity
Theory assumes evolution, which allows the integration of one's personal
history with the current goals. This allows elders to change with the
times, but within a framework which uses their past learnings. In making
adaptive choices, middle-aged and older adults apply familiar strategies
in familiar arenas of life.(1)
"Normal
aging" is usual, commonly encountered patterns of human aging.
It can be distinguished from pathological aging by a lack of physical
or mental disease. "Normal aging people are independent adults
with persistent self-concepts and identities. They can successfully
meet their needs for income, housing, health care, nutrition, clothing,
transportation, and recreation. They lead active, satisfying, and purposeful
lives that involve adequate networks of long-standing social relationships."
(1, p. 184) When physical or mental changes limit functioning ability,
it is risky to continue doing things in which the individual is no longer
competent. Thus, continuity is not a very adaptive way of dealing with
pathological aging.
Continuity
means congruity or consistency (not sameness) of patterns over time.
It is a subjective perception that changes are linked to and fit with
individual personal history. Older adults may have too much continuity,
where routines become ruts; too little continuity, where little in life
can be predicted; or optimum continuity, with enough change to stimulate,
but enough predictability for stability.
Mastery
and competence increase predictability, so that events can be anticipated
and interpreted. Integrity is a personal history of what one has been
and will be in the future. Self-esteem is enhanced by successes in reaching
the expectations of the self. People want to count on the social relationships
and social support given them in the past. If there are physical and
mental changes, they can adapt to these keeping the remaining functions
at usable levels.
Changing
demographics are also changing the complexion of family life, with longer
family bonds and complex inter-generational relations. We can understand
more about these dynamics of families by understanding the transitions
(life changes of role involvements and social identity) and countertransitions
(transitions caused by life changes in others). Key transitions can
be death of parents or children, entry into grandparenthood, retirement,
and marital disruption and remarriage.(2, p. 405)
To
identify the effect on the family, the prevalence, timing and sequencing
need to be identified. Are these events "on-time" compared
to others in the cohort population? Since human beings prefer to have
a predictable life, events which appear out of sequence or untimely
can be more problematic. When there are few who experience such events
in similar fashion, there are few social supports available to them.
(2)
"Both
internal and external continuity help individuals focus on and maintain
their strengths and minimize the effects of deficits as normal aging
occurs." (1, p. 186)
Inner
Continuity Self refers to what we think and feel when we focus attention
on our specific selves. The self concept is what we think we are like.
The ideal self is what we think we ought to be like; self-evaluation
is a moral assessment on how well we see ourselves as having lived up
to our ideal; and self-esteem is how much we like or dislike what we
see." (1, p. 186) Once formed, identity tends to be resilient and
contains a multitude of conflicting details without causing the individual
to doubt the validity of them. Developing adults accept themselves as
they are through recognizing their successes and failures. (1)
External
Continuity
For
many in the middle to later years, there is much continuity in the tasks,
skills, activities, roles and relationships. Things need to be done,
and by doing them, we sharpen that long-term skill. With fewer demands,
there is more opportunity to do those activities in which they have
strengths or skills. Continuity means choosing new experiences which
fit within our self-defined mastery framework. We build upon past successes.
Relationships
can be maintained and expanded throughout life and are counted on for
dependable social support, mutual aid, and affirmation of the self.
These can be personal and close, with marriage as a prime example. They
also can be more formal but pleasant, as in co-workers. It is easier
to leave co-workers behind in retirement because the relationships were
not close and personal. Among Extension retirees, some continue to meet
together over time because of the close personal relationship beyond
the working role.
Although
many cite the loss of status with lost roles in aging, the expectations
for the roles change. Greater attention is given to personal roles and
less to expectations of others. However, if a lost skill was critical
to self-definition, then the lost role identity may suffer.
For
those considering retirement, elder parental or adult child life experiences
and changes may accelerate or slow down the option for retirement. Divorce
of adult child and/or illness in elder parent may compete for resources
of the family member contemplating retirement.
Generational
Cycles
From
historical perspectives, Strauss and Howe (3) have recognized significant
trends in generations or cohorts of people which may help in interpreting
attitudes and behaviors of the past, present and future. They identified
common markers from how they were raised as children, key public events
during adolescence, and what was expected of them as they became adults.
The authors suggest this understanding of generational lifecycles shows
a new paradigm for understanding social history and anticipating the
future.
Since
the 1620s, 18 generations (roughly 20-25 years in length) can be identified
throughout American history. Five of these are quite active in American
life today. As these generations grow older, the character of each age
group changes entirely. These five generations are:
- "The
G.I. Generation, born between 1901 and 1924, confident, rational problem-
solvers, the ones who have always seemed to know how to get big things
done. Today's G.I.s are busy 'senior citizens,' possessed of boundless
civic optimism and a sense of public entitlement of having earned
late-life rewards through early-life heroism. They represent a huge
change from the early 1960s, when the (Lost) elderly were America's
poorest, loneliest, and least politically assertive age group.
- "The
Silent Generation, born between 1925 and 1942, the unobtrusive children
of depression and war, the conformist 'Lonely Crowd,' divorced parents
of multi-child households. Now they are the litigators, arbitrators,
and technocrats of a society they have helped make more complex. They
give freely to charity, are inclined to see both sides of every issue,
and believe in fair process more than final results.
- "The
Boom Generation, born between 1943 through 1960 to reflect their common
experiences rather than birthrates. They were born into an era of
optimism and are more recently leaders of ecological, educational,
and drug-prohibition crusades. Boomers are marked by limited social
discipline and a desire to infuse new values into the institutions
they are inheriting, with a bent toward inner absorption, perfectionism,
and individual self-esteem.
- "The
13th Generation, born in the 1960s and 1970s, the throw-away children
of divorce and poverty, the latchkey kids in experimental classrooms
without walls. Today it's hard to find a (13er) teenager who does
not look at his future with blunt, even cynical realism.
- "The
Millennial Generation tots, born beginning in 1982, are already the
stars of cuddly-baby movies, and national leaders have targeted them
as a smarter, better-behaving, and more civic-spirited wave of American
youth." (3,p. 26-27)
"Just
as history produces generations, so too do generations produce history.
At the heart of this interaction lies a recurring pattern of 'secular
crises' (threats to national survival and a reordering of public life),
and 'spiritual awakenings' (social and religious upheavals and a reordering
of private life)."
"Every
generation whose personality resembles the G.I.s is born after a spiritual
awakening, comes of age during a secular crisis, and reaches old age
during the next spiritual awakening.
"First,
an inner-fixated (Boom-type) Idealist Generation grows up as indulged
youths after a crisis, comes of age inspiring an awakening, fragments
into narcissistic rising adults, cultivates principle as mid-life moralizers,
and emerges as visionary elders who congeal and guide the next crisis.
"Next,
a (13er-type) Reactive Generation grows up as under-protected and criticized
youths during an awakening, comes of age as alienated risk-takers, burns
out young before mellowing into mid-life pragmatists and family-oriented
conservatives, and age into caustic but undemanding elders.
"Next,
an outer-fixated (G.I.-type) Civic Generation grows up under new adult
protection after an awakening, comes of age by overcoming a secular
crisis, unites into a heroic and achieving cadre of rising adults, builds
institutions as powerful midlifers, and later finds itself attacked
as elders during the next awakening.
"Finally,
a (Silent-type) Adaptive Generation grows up as suffocated children
of crisis, comes of age as adult-emulating conformists, produces the
indecisive mediators of the next awakening, and ages into sensitive
and other-directed elders.
"An
Adaptive Generation is followed by another Idealist Generation -- and
so forth, as the cycle repeats." (3, p. 30-31)
Cited
References
- Atchley,
Robert C., "A Continuity Theory of Normal Aging," The Gerontologist,
Vol. 29, No. 2, 1989, pp. 183-190.
- Hagestad,
Gunhild O., "Demographic Change and the Life Course: Some Emerging
Trends in the Family Realm," Family Relations, Vol. 37, No. 4,
Oct.1988, pp. 405-410.
- Strauss,
William and Neil Howe, "The Cycle of Generations," American
Demographics, April 1991, pp. 24-33, 52. The article is adapted from
their book Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069,
William Morrow & Company.
