Some Things I Have Learned About Aging by Studying the Life Course

Settersten, Richard A.

doi:10.1093/geroni/igx014

“…In the magazine We over 60 (in Norwegian: Vi over 60), consumers aged 60 years have been labeled as the “hedonists of our time” (Vi over 60, 2016). We may suggest that having a long-term disability and lacking the resources required to live up to an image of an active and successful lifestyle and the “successfully aging” person in the “third age” (Laslett, 1991; Settersten, 2017) may contribute to less satisfaction with life in this age-group.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aging With a Physical Disability, Duration of Disability, and Life Satisfaction: A 5-Year Longitudinal Study Among People Aged 40 to 79 Years

Nicolaisen

¹

,

Strand

²

,

Thorsen

³

2019

Int J Aging Hum Dev

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Studies show that having physical disabilities is associated with lower life satisfaction (LS). People with disabilities have reduced opportunities and welfare compared with people without disabilities. During aging, disabilities may have different impact on LS. A question is whether disability duration plays a unique role by affecting LS or whether an association is caused by other factors. This study analyzed Norwegian panel data ( N = 2,555) including people aged 40 to 79 years at baseline to examine how disability and its duration affect LS at follow-up 5 years later, controlling for sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and health factors using ordinary least-squares regression. People with disabilities had lower LS than those without disabilities. Disability duration affected LS among people aged 40 to 49 years and 60 to 69 years, but the association was due to the lack of social, economic, and health resources. The meaning of duration of disability and challenges of reduced resources will vary with life stages.

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“…Research on generations and intergenerational exchanges originated and still is considered an important topic in the field of sociology (Mayer, 2009 ), which emphasizes the role of the social, institutional, cultural, and historical contexts for human development (Settersten, 2017 ; Tomlinson, Baird, Berg, & Cooper, 2018 ). In contrast, the lifespan perspective, which originated in the field of psychology, places a stronger focus on individual differences and within-person variability.…”

Section: Moving Beyond Generations: Two Alternative Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generations and Generational Differences: Debunking Myths in Organizational Science and Practice and Paving New Paths Forward

Rudolph

¹

,

Rauvola

²

,

Costanza

³

et al. 2020

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Talk about generations is everywhere and particularly so in organizational science and practice. Recognizing and exploring the ubiquity of generations is important, especially because evidence for their existence is, at best, scant. In this article, we aim to achieve two goals that are targeted at answering the broad question: "What accounts for the ubiquity of generations despite a lack of evidence for their existence and impact?" First, we explore and "bust" ten common myths about the science and practice of generations and generational differences. Second, with these debunked myths as a backdrop, we focus on two alternative and complementary frameworks-the social constructionist perspective and the lifespan development perspective-with promise for changing the way we think about age, aging, and generations at work. We argue that the social constructionist perspective offers important opportunities for understanding the persistence and pervasiveness of generations and that, as an alternative to studying generations, the lifespan perspective represents a better model for understanding how age operates and development unfolds at work. Overall, we urge stakeholders in organizational science and practice (e.g., students, researchers, consultants, managers) to adopt more nuanced perspectives grounded in these models, rather than a generational perspective, to understand the influence of age and aging at work. Keywords Generations. Generational differences. Constructionist perspectives. Lifespan development People commonly talk about generations and like to make distinctions between them. Purported differences between generations have been blamed for everything from declining interest in baseball (Keeley, 2016) to changing patterns of processed cheese consumption (Mulvany & Patton, 2018). In the workplace, generations and generational differences have been credited for everything from declining levels of work ethic (e.g., Cenkus, 2017; cf. Zabel, Biermeier-Hanson, Baltes, Early, & Shepard, 2017), to higher rates of "job-hopping" (e.g., Adkins, 2016; cf. Costanza, Badger,

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“…Research on generations and intergenerational exchanges originated, and still is considered an important topic in, the field of sociology (Mayer, 2009), which emphasizes the role of the social, institutional, cultural, and historical contexts for human development (Settersten, 2017;Tomlinson et al, 2018). In contrast, the lifespan perspective, which originated in the field of psychology, places a stronger focus on individual differences and within-person variability.…”

Section: Moving Beyond Generations: Two Alternative Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generations and Generational Differences: Debunking Myths in Organizational Science and Practice and Paving New Paths Forward

Rudolph¹,

Rauvola²,

Costanza³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Talk about generations is everywhere and particularly so in organizational science and practice. Recognizing and exploring the ubiquity of generations is important, especially because evidence for their existence is, at best, scant. In this article, we aim to achieve two goals that are targeted at answering the broad question: “What accounts for the ubiquity of generations despite a lack of evidence for their existence and impact?” First, we explore and “bust” ten common myths about the science and practice of generations and generational differences. Second, with these debunked myths as a backdrop, we focus on two alternative and complementary frameworks— the social constructionist perspective and the lifespan development perspective—with promise for changing the way we think about age, aging, and generations at work. We argue that the social constructionist perspective offers important opportunities for understanding the persistence and pervasiveness of generations, and that, as an alternative to studying generations, the lifespan perspective represents a better model for understanding how age operates and development unfolds at work. Overall, we urge stakeholders in organizational science and practice (e.g., students, researchers, consultants, managers) to adopt more nuanced perspectives grounded in these models, rather than a generational perspective, to understand the influence of age and aging at work.

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Some Things I Have Learned About Aging by Studying the Life Course

Cited by 20 publications

References 24 publications

Aging With a Physical Disability, Duration of Disability, and Life Satisfaction: A 5-Year Longitudinal Study Among People Aged 40 to 79 Years

Aging With a Physical Disability, Duration of Disability, and Life Satisfaction: A 5-Year Longitudinal Study Among People Aged 40 to 79 Years

Generations and Generational Differences: Debunking Myths in Organizational Science and Practice and Paving New Paths Forward

Generations and Generational Differences: Debunking Myths in Organizational Science and Practice and Paving New Paths Forward

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