Should We Be Concerned about Age Segregation? Some Theoretical and Empirical Explorations

Filed under: Life Course Perspectives

Hagestad, Gunhild O.; & Uhlenberg, Peter. (2006). Should We Be Concerned about Age Segregation? Some Theoretical and Empirical Explorations. Research on Aging, 28(6), 638-53.

Reference Type:
Journal Article

Secondary Title:

Series Title:

Author(s):
Hagestad, Gunhild O.
Uhlenberg, Peter

Editor(s):

Series Author(s):

Year Published:
2006

Date Published:

Journal Name:
Research on Aging

Volume Number:
28

Issue Number:
6

Start Page Number:
638-53

End Page Number:

Edition:

Series Volume:

Publisher:

City of Publication:

ISSN/ISBN:

DOI:
10.1177/0164027506291872

PMCID:

NIHMSID:

Reference ID:
2745

Miscellaneous:

Abstract:

With its complex links to the division of labor and culture, age is also related to social integration. It can form a basis for social integration and form contrasts, chasms, and conflicts in society. After providing a brief history of how social scientists have viewed age as an integrative and a segregative force in society, the authors consider dimensions of age segregation in contemporary Western societies, which are marked by widespread institutional, spatial, and cultural age segregation, with only the family surviving as an age-integrated institution. For older adults, ties to children and grandchildren represent possibilities for learning and the development of generativity: investment in the lives of others and in the future of human communities. The link between cross-generational ties and generativity appears to be particularly clear for men. Can we rely on families to counter the potentially negative consequences of societal age segregation, or should we be concerned about family change, such as rising rates of childlessness?

Keyword(s):
Life Course Perspectives

URL:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0164027506291872

Notes:

RIS Export File:
Octet Stream icon

2745.ris — Octet Stream, 1 kB (1,417 bytes)

Citation:

Hagestad, Gunhild O.; & Uhlenberg, Peter. (2006). Should We Be Concerned about Age Segregation? Some Theoretical and Empirical Explorations. Research on Aging, 28(6), 638-53.