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- Aartsen, Marja, et al.
(author)
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Ageing in the light of crises : Economic crisis, demographic change, and the search for meaning
- 2012
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Old age has many images, with the one of a crisis regaining momentum. While images of activity and opportunity gained ground during recent decades, this trend now seems to reverse. The current economic crisis drains the financial resources of older people, which increases old age poverty. Moreover, governments react to the double-pressure of economic crises and population ageing through budget cuts, which reduces support systems for older people. It, moreover, centers public discourses more strongly on social problems associated with old age. Both developments underline the needs associated with old age and draw our attention away from the potentials of old age. In other words, they bring discussions on old age back to the topic of crises. This working paper discusses how the economic crisis affects older people, how governments, labour markets, and families react to the double-pressure of population ageing and economic crisis, and how individuals perceive their old age. It concludes with reflections on the implications of growing crisis-centrism in discussions on old age. Such crisis-centrism can lead us to overlook social inequalities in old age and to neglect the subjective character of the perception of old age. The public image of old age might, thus, be stronger associated with the idea of crisis than what older people’s lived experience suggests.
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- Aartsen, Marja, et al.
(author)
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The future of greying Europe : Conclusion
- 2013
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In: Old age in Europe. - Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands. - 9789400761346 - 9789400761339 ; , s. 131-136
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Although Europe’s population is greying, the future of Europe does not look grey. What can be learned from this book is that old age is not necessarily characterized by frailty and decline, but instead can be a time of self-fulfillment, activity, and social participation. Moreover, we now know that population ageing does not need to threaten extant social and welfare state-related institutions, but instead opens up potentials for restructuring and reinvention. Life expectancy is longer than ever before and living conditions that enhance healthy ageing have very much improved. New technologies and Information and Communication Technologies may assist older people to stay in their homes longer. The growing possibilities to reach a good old age may have given rise to what is sometimes called ‘a silver economy’: an economy with all kinds of new products and services, particularly aimed at the growing share of healthy and wealthy senior citizens. The greying of Europe might, thus, ultimately lead us into a bright and colourful future.
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- Robitaille, Annie, et al.
(author)
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Longitudinal Mediation of Processing Speed on Age-Related Change in Memory and Fluid Intelligence.
- 2013
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In: Psychology and aging. - : American Psychological Association (APA). - 1939-1498 .- 0882-7974. ; 28:4, s. 887-901
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Age-related decline in processing speed has long been considered a key driver of cognitive aging. While the majority of empirical evidence for the processing speed hypothesis has been obtained from analyses of between-person age differences, longitudinal studies provide a direct test of within-person change. Using recent developments in longitudinal mediation analysis, we examine the speed-mediation hypothesis at both the within-and between-person levels in two longitudinal studies, Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) and Origins of Variance in the Oldest-Old (OCTO-Twin). We found significant within-person indirect effects of change in age, such that increasing age was related to lower speed, which in turn relates to lower performance across repeated measures on other cognitive outcomes. Although between-person indirect effects were also significant in LASA, they were not in OCTO-Twin which is not unexpected given the age homogeneous nature of the OCTO-Twin data. A more in-depth examination through measures of effect size suggests that, for the LASA study, the within-person indirect effects were small and between-person indirect effects were consistently larger. These differing magnitudes of direct and indirect effects across levels demonstrate the importance of separating between- and within-person effects in evaluating theoretical models of age-related change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
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