Introduction
 

 My goal in creating this site is to make the reader more aware of the intergenerational issues that face us today. There was a time when our roles in society and within the family were fairly well defined. Father was the "breadwinner", Mother was the primary caregiver, and even grandparents were viewed as nurturers and providers of family history. The dynamics that make up a "family" have changed. There are more divorced parents, single family parents, and "nontraditional" families than ever before, not to mention the added component of family members living greater distances apart. Along with the change in roles within the family unit has come a decrease in the consistent and frequent interactions between younger and older members of our families. This shift in cultural roles creates not only issues for the family, but social policy issues as well.
By exploring some of the following issues:

how we perceive those younger and older than ourselves
how our communication affects perception
what types of programs exist that work toward re-establishing interaction among those in different age groups

perhaps we can come to re-think our roles as reliant upon one another to provide such things as  historical perspective, cultural traditions, necessary care at both ends of the life span, and other types of support to make it an enriching experience along the way.
 
 

Defining Generation

In his book, "Ties that Bind", Kingston(1986), differentiates among the meanings we have for "generation":
 Age Group- often an age group is refered to as a generation (e.g., persons under the age of 18 are often classified as children).
Birth Cohort- refers to persons born at roughly the same period of time, measured in 10-20 year intervals (e.g., the baby boom generation). As birth cohorts age, they move into different age groups
Lineage within families-used to refer to lines of decent( e.g., children, parents, grandparents).

Researchers who focus on generations consider what historical events they witnessed, how they were raised, and the social missions they were given.These factors impact each generations attitudes, values and beliefs.

One aspect of intergenerational interaction that we have come to focus on as society and family dynamics change is that of intergenerational programs. These serve to replace some of the lost interactions as a result of changes in family roles and society in general.
 
 
 

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS AND INITIATIVES(1963-1987)
*The following is from the document "Paper on Intergenerational Programs" located online at:                                   http://www.eds.tamu.edu/al_htdocs/intergen.html
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There have been many significant events and initiatives that have contributed to the growth of intergenerational programs.

Beginning in 1963, with the Foster Grandparents Program, the concept of intergenerational programming was introduced. This program initially focused on the capabilities of lower income older persons, and later became concerned with matching lower income, healthy older adults to children with special or exceptional needs.

Also in 1963, the Adopt a Grandparent Program was developed. It involved weekly class visits by young children to a neighboring convalescent home.

A program called (SERVE), Serve and Enrich Retirement by Volunteer Experience, began in 1967 with twenty-three older volunteers working with children and young adults at a residential home for the mentally retarded, and by 1969, grew into a program involving 1,500 senior volunteers working in ninety agencies of which the majority serve children and their families.

The success of SERVE aided in the creation of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), in 1969. RSVP was established as a national program authorized by the reauthorization act of the Older Americans Act of 1965. Now there are 750 RSVP programs with 400,000 senior volunteers.

Also in 1969, the National Center for Service-Learning, was created as the National Student Volunteer Program and acts as an advocate for the development and expansion of student volunteers and service-learning programs with a focus on service to the elderly.

In 1970, a group called The Gray Panthers was formed. This group advocates involving active collaboration between younger and older members of our society in order to address social policy issues such as Ageism.

An agreement was signed, in 1975, between the U.S. Office of Education and the U.S. Administration on Aging establishing guidelines for using the nation’s schools to provide a variety of educational, recreational, nutritional and volunteer opportunities for the nation’s elderly. In the same year a survey reported that 40,000 Americans over 65 were serving as volunteers in the public education system.

In 1976, the first aging education program was implemented into the curriculum for grades K - 12 in California; and in Michigan Teaching-Learning Communities was developed as an intergenerational program model to bring elders, their crafts and their caring into the public school system.

An award of $10,000,000 was made in 1978, by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, to six major school systems in an effort to develop, over a three year period, intergeneratioinal programs that would involve older persons as volunteers who would contribute directly to support the growth and learning of youth in school settings.

A model multi-care retirement center, called Messiah Village, that included an intergenerational component was established in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1978. Inside the village was to be a child care center whose daily schedule included interaction between the children and the older residents. This project has become the prototype for other long-term care or retirement facilities.

The first university program developed to focus exclusively on the concept of intergenerational exchange was created in 1978 and called Generations Together, at the University of Pittsburgh. The intent of the program was to develop intergenerational program models, to research their outcomes, and to disseminate information on program development and research.

In 1979, the California Intergenerational Child Care Act voted into law support for the development of two intergenerational child care centers. These intergenerational models prompted the preparation of the California Intergenerational Child Care Act of 1985 that passed the legislature unanimously but was vetoed by the governor.

The first intergeneratioinal film, called Close Harmony, was produced in 1980. The film described the development of procedures involved in creating an intergenerational choir whose participants, members of senior center and students at a private school, developed important and meaningful relationships.

At the White House Conference on Aging, (WHCoA), in 1981, two position papers were submitted to Congress: (1.) “Challenging Age Stereotypes in the Media,” a document that reported on a conference in which media experts and anti-ageism advocates worked together to develop a strategy for improving the representation of older persons in all aspects of the media, and (2.) “Older Americans as a National Growing Resource,” a report which described existing opportunities for older persons as active participants in society and recommended strategies for the government, the private sector, and the volunteer sector for maintaining this national resource.

In 1982, a memoranda of understanding was signed between the Departments of Aging and Education in California, Florida, and Pennsylvania. The memoranda addressed the need to provide educational experiences that promoted the understanding of the aging process and that provided opportunities for exchange between the generations.

The final report of The World Assembly on Aging in Vienna, in 1982, expressed a deep concern regarding the alienation and generational discontinuity in societies accepting western models of industrialization, bureaucratization, occupational and organizational complexities. “...they recommend the encouraging of activities and programs to enhance generational solidarity”.

A companion bill “Intergenerational Education Volunteer Network Act of 1985” was introduced into the 99th Congress. It provided opportunities for senior citizens to work in elementary and secondary schools and in homes with educationally disadvantaged children and their families.

In 1984-87 intergenerational statewide and regional networks were created in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Many guides were published to support the development of intergenerational programs and were made available to the intergenerational program networks throughout the country.

One hundred organizations and national agencies joined together, in 1987, to form Generations United and advocate for public policies and programs that recognize the interdependence of children, youth, families and the elderly.

These preceding events demonstrate a consistent growth of interest in the field of intergenerational programs and exchange, and the need to revitalize the connections between the generations.
 
 

Review of the Literature
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The research seems to support the idea that we hold many preconceived notions about those in a different generation from our own. Findings seem to indicate that when put to the test there is a large discrepancy between knowledge and experience. The research and information on intergenerational issues is vast. The articles I have chosen to review here focused on changes in self understanding as it relates to interaction between young and old, the effects of story-telling and the language used on grandparent-grandchild relationships, how own age and other's age effect self-disclosure, and the growing need for intergenerational programs and approaches to social policy.
 

In a study entitled, "Intergenerational Experience and Ontological Change"(McGowan & Blankenship,1994) researchers were interested in studing the theory of ontological change (which is defined as,"the process whereby new experiences contradict explicit assumptions, resulting in self reflection and changes in self-understanding"[p.590]) as it relates to interaction between young and old. His goal was to assess the changes in the way people understand  themselves differently as a result of intergenerational experience.
     The study was designed by creating a course called "Life Histories Project". College Undergraduates were involved in semester long relationships with elder companions with the goal of recording their life histories. Students conducted weekly visits with elders. By focusing on biographical story telling and dialogue, the meetings would provide intimate interaction. The weekly dialogues allow the student and the elder to build mutual understanding. Because of this interaction, researchers hypothesized that, "participating students would experience ontological change resulting in a less stereotypical understanding of their companions and aging in general"(p.593).

The method of observation was done through content analysis of journals kept by students as a part of their project experience. Students were required to make three journal entries each week as a way of processing their experience. Entries were required to reflects thoughts or experiences relating directly to the project. Average age of students was 20 years, and average age of elders was 84. An inductive approach was taken in analyzing the journals so that general coding categories could be obtained. Joint coding decisions were divided into four general types of student experience:

Anticipation- feelings relating to apprehension and expectation(i.e., uncertainty in relating to elders, fear of embarressment, not living up to expectations).

Personal Conflict- Unsettling interpersonal/ relational experiences(i.e.,being forced to consider sobering facts about life, detachment, having world views/values change).

Reevaluation- refers to the student's self reflection as they struggled to come to terms with their unsettling experiences.

Transposition- students began to effect changes in their role in the Intergenerational relationship.

The researchers reported in their findings that the reevaluation and transposition experiences produced some key experiences in reevaluation of self and reevaluation of view toward aging and the elderly.
Reevaluation included:
Accepting old age as an aspect of their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
Realizing that apprehension toward the elderly indicates fear of  their own mortality.
Reflecting on their relationship with parents and grandparents.
Concluding that the meaning of age is relevant.
Seeing the elder as an individual with a personality.
Becoming angry with others' treatment of elderly as objects.
Transposition included:
The student became an advocate for their elder.
The student gained new perspective on life.
The elder took an active interest in the student's life.
The student viewed the elder as an individual who had aged rather than as an aged person.
Pity changed to sympathy/empathy.
The interview relationship was replaced with friendship.

The students came into the relationship with preconceived ideas about what the interaction would be like based on their inherited assumptions about the elderly. Through interaction with their companions, previous assumptions were revealed to be inappropriate. This led to changes in the way students viewed themselves; their companions,and in some aspects, life in general.

The next two studies examine the content of communication between young and older adults through discourse analysis. In a special journal issue entitled,"Intergenerational Communication: Evaluations and Analyses of Talk Exchanged Between Older and Younger Adults", Ryan(1994), looks at the potential barriers and facilitators of communication between generations. Studies focused on such issues as patronizing speech, intonation patterns and physical appearance as they relate to negative aging stereotypes. The two articles I chose to summarize relate to story sharing within grandparent-grandchild relationships and the functions this serves, and a study of the type, amount, and intimacy of self-disclosure between same age and mixed age dyads.

 The first study examined the story telling that characterizes interaction between grandparent and grandchild. In research relevant to this study, Cherlin and Furstenburg(1986)suggest that the grandparent serves as a symbol of continuity. Instead of actual behavioral expectations, these authors note that grand parenthood is recognized as behaviorally diverse, but consistent on a more symbolic or abstract level.

Troll(1983), defines the grandparent role as that of "family watchdog"(p.68)who is called on during times of crisis. He suggests that they will relinquish control and assistance in normal family functioning, but becomes aggressive when the family is in crisis. He considers this to be a positive family role.

Across these interpretations, it is suggested that the quality of the grandparent-grandchild relationship affects children's attitudes about elders.This interaction becomes instrumental in combating children's adoptions of the myths and stereotypes surrounding the aging process(Matthews and Sprey,1985).

 In this research, the authors were interested in the communication of stories told to college age grandchildren by their grandparent. First, when asked about the meaning of life for them, what characterizes the stories grandparents relate to their grandchildren? Second, is there a gender difference underlying the kinds of stories grandparents tell to relate the meaning of life? Third, what types of metaphors do they use to capture the meaning of life for them and to share in conveying it?

120 college age students enrolled in a communication and aging course were asked to audio tape a conversation with one of their grandparents as a course requirement. 40 of the 120 tapes were randomly chosen for evaluation. The sample consisted of an equal number of grandfather-grandson, grandmother-grandson, grandfather-granddaughter, and grandmother-granddaughter dyads. Students were asked to have the grandparent, "tell a story that captures a meaning of life" for them. Then the grandparent was asked to finish the sentence, "To me, life is like____".

 Analysis of these tapes involved looking for patterns in the stories that grandparents told. Researchers reported that several patterns emerged:
Grandmothers talked at least twice as long as Grandfathers(regardless of child gender).
Most grandparents(80%) mentioned their age in the course of the story.

In terms of gender differences:
Grandfathers tended to talk about youth experiences(especially wartime) to emphasize the value of life.
Grandfathers were more likely to talk about major health problems that made them refocus on the meaning of life.
Grandfathers were also more likely to tell a story that had a particular moral for the listener.

In contrast, over 80% of grandmothers:
Talked  specifically about how the family developed, how they met their spouses, or about parents and grandparents to emphasize the value of family history and preservation.
Tended to compare and contrast life today with life 50 years ago.

 These gender findings mimic those of Thorsheim and Roberts(1991), who concluded that, "Men's stories often seem to be focused on mastery (I am what I have done), whereas women's stories seemed to be filled with consideration of the relationships (I am the relationships I have established)"[p.122].In response to the question, "Life is like...", all grandparents responded positively. Life-metaphors used in the grandparent-grandchild context appeared to be designed to pass on wisdom or the benefits of experience.

As a final result, it was noted that grandchildren rarely responded in story form as they were instructed to do. Instead, they tended to list values or qualities that they felt were important in life, but not stories. Researchers theorized that this may be due to their life experience being too limited to draw from or that the grandchild may have felt that grandparents could not relate to the kinds of stories or experiences they would share.

 Researchers seemed to conclude from this study that this relational interaction is not typically shared, but is unidirectional from grandparent to child. Further, stories function to let people shape and preserve their history, and the stories from this interaction provide some common ground on which to negotiate and maintain relationships.

     The next study relates to another aspect of communication as it relates to different age groups. A stereotype exists about older adults, particularly women, that suggests they are, "...too willing to latch on to others and too willing to talk about overly personal topics"(Collins and Gould,1994).The stereotype relates to self-disclosure and the violation of norms.
     Researchers asserted three major hypotheses related to the relationship of  age to self-disclosure in same age and mixed age dyads:
Hypothesis 1: Predicted that older women will disclose more intimately and more negatively than will younger women.
Hypothesis 2: Older women will disclose more about the past than younger women.
Hypothesis 3: Young women will disclose more and more intimately to their age peers than to older women.

 Participants were twenty young women, age 19-23 and twenty older women, age 68-82. The method was to give each dyad a set of conversational topics. Conversations were recorded and transcribed and a scoring scheme was developed to code conversation.

Findings:
There were no age differences in the negativity or intimacy of young and olds partners disclosures(contrasting previous study findings).
In speech to young women, young and old women gave about the same number of disclosures.
Older women talked more about the past.
There were differences in the way young women disclosed to peers vs. older women(primarily in a higher degree of coordination[give and take]).
There was more disclosure in young-young dyads, supporting hypothesis 3.

 The authors suggest in their summary that young women believe they should behave differently depending on the age of their conversational partner. Explanation of this phenomenon is a subject for further studies.Finally, they suggest that there is much more to discover about self-disclosure and the role it plays in the formation and maintenance of intergenerational relationships.

 The aging of the large baby boom generation(defined as those born between 1945-1965), combined with the declines in size of family that followed, and the increases in life expectancy will result in an aging population. The author suggests that it is not enough that societies success in prolonging life means living longer. He argues that meaning must be found in those years, and that meaning must be conveyed to those that follow. Intergenerational programs involving the elderly giving to the young and visa versa(e.g., Foster Grandparents, Youth in Service to Elders)can serve to provide role models to the young, give elderly a sense of purpose, and as the author notes,"provide an important lesson in the resiliency of the human spirit".

Changes in family structures such as those due to higher divorce rates and a  higher rate of births to single parents have produced a further strain on the families ability to provide care. Combine this with more women working outside the home and trends toward smaller families, means that fewer caregivers will be available for both ends of the age spectrum. Because of this, there is a need for social programs to support the family in doing what it has done so well in the past, provide care(Erikson,1978). Not only can these programs offer much needed support, but they serve to provide a format for sharing knowledge and culture and to create understanding about issues that will affect generations to come.

Links to Related Sites
 

Generations Together	Sharing Life Stories	Theories of Erik Erikson..
Intergenerational Learning	Generations United	Relationships in Later Life
Service Learning Models	Education Efforts	References