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- Title
Baby Boomers in an Active Adult Retirement Community: Comity Interrupted.
- Authors
Roth, Erin G.; Keimig, Lynn; Rubinstein, Robert L.; Morgan, Leslie; Eckert, J. Kevin; Goldman, Susan; Peeples, Amanda D.
- Abstract
Purpose of the Study: This article explores a clash between incoming Baby Boomers and older residents in an active adult retirement community (AARC). We examine issues of social identity and attitudes as these groups encounter each other. Design and Methods: Data are drawn from a multiyear ethnographic study of social relations in senior housing. Research at this site included in-depth, open-ended interviews (47), field notes (25), and participant observation in the field (500 hr). Research team biweekly discussions and Atlas.ti software program facilitated analysis. Findings: We begin with a poignant incident that has continued to engender feelings of rejection by elders with each retelling and suggests the power and prevalence of ageism in this AARC. We identify three pervasive themes: (a) social identity and image matter, (b) significant cultural and attitudinal differences exist between Boomers and older residents, and (c) shared age matters less than shared interests. Implications: Our data clearly show the operation of ageism in this community and an equating of being old with being sick. The conflict between these two age cohorts suggests that cohort consciousness among Boomers carries elements of age denial, shared by the older old. It also challenges the Third Age concept as a generational phenomenon.
- Subjects
AGEISM; BABY boom generation; FIELDWORK (Educational method); INTERGENERATIONAL relations; INTERVIEWING; PARTICIPANT observation; RESEARCH; RESEARCH funding; RETIREMENT; SOCIAL stigma; ETHNOLOGY research; SOCIAL attitudes; THEMATIC analysis; INDEPENDENT living
- Publication
Gerontologist, 2012, Vol 52, Issue 2, p189
- ISSN
0016-9013
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/geront/gnr155