If you are unable to shop for yourself, complete housework or drive your car, then you are of ‘old age’, says a recent study from Oregon State University.
That study studied people in their 80s and 90s and found that even their adult children treated them differently due to their old age, the Daily Mail reported.
Some specific activities that are the thought to be the parameters of one's independence are the most important markers of age, according to the study by Oregon State University researcher Michelle Barnhart.
The research was carried out by conducting in-depth interviews with consumers in their late 80s, as well as their caregivers and family members - often the participants adult children in their 50s and 60s.
Barnhart found that the Baby Boomers, who are aging themselves were not interested to consider themselves old but often treated their own parents as 'old people' - not allowing them to exercise independence where they could and assuming they're scatterbrained as well as slow.
This could lead to conflicts between the parents, who don't feel themselves old, and their adult children, who do, she said.
Barnhart also noticed that those passing their 80s and 90s are often dealing with negative connotations of old age.
"Almost every stereotype we associate with being elderly is something negative,' she said, 'from being 'crotchety' and unwilling to change to being forgetful."
Barnhart said that part of the problem with 'old age' is that society tends to marginalize those who are advanced in years, rather than valuing them for their wisdom.
The complete details of her study will be published in the April 2013 edition of the Journal of Consumer Research.
-With inputs from ANI
|
|
Comments:
