Making sense and making peace: How older adults and middle -aged children conceptualize and cope with the challenges of aging
Abstract
This study sought to understand how older adults and middle-aged children make sense of the challenges of aging. In particular, the move to a care-related facility provides a context for the study of how uncertainty, ambivalence, and other concerns connected with the aging process are conceptualized by older adults and their children. Furthermore, how older adults and middle-aged children communicate about and cope with these challenges was examined. Babrow's (1992, 1995, 2001, 2007) Problematic Integration theory provides a framework for this research. A qualitative study employing in-depth interviews with 44 older adults and 12 middle aged children from two continuum-of-care facilities was conducted. Findings indicate that both older and middle-aged participants experienced problematic integration concerning the declines suffered by the older adult, changes in the parent-child relationship, and the decision to move to a care-related facility. However, the problematic integrations of the older adults are quite different than those experienced by the middle-aged adults. Individuals from these age groups differ in what concerns them and how they orient to those concerns probabilistically and evaluatively. Parents and children also differed in how they communicate about and cope with these challenges. The children in this study had a more difficult time with their parents' aging and particularly with the move to a care facility than the older adults themselves. Older adult participants focused on positive evaluations, acceptance, and adaptation. The children's coping was less optimistic in tone and less constructive. Rather than taking a positive outlook, children concentrated heavily on the negative, engaged in more avoidance than older adults, and attempted to evaluate their parents' circumstances with more certainty than was actually warranted. By and large most of the coping mechanisms that older adults employed help explain their success in maintaining a positive outlook, achieving satisfaction with their move and their family communication, and adapting to the challenges of aging.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Morgan, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Gerontology|Communication|Developmental psychology
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