Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Lloyd's Register Foundation Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
J Aging Soc Policy. 2024 Sep 2;36(5):749-766. doi: 10.1080/08959420.2023.2238538. Epub 2023 Aug 3.
As older individuals play instrumental roles in supporting their families and contributing to their workplaces, it is essential to understand how society perceives them in relation to these social roles. This study compares age-based (e.g. senior citizen), familial role-based (e.g. grandmother) and occupational role-based framing (e.g. old(er) doctor) of older adults over 210 years in the United States, and explores the sentiments and narratives associated with each type of framing. We created the largest historical corpus of American English - a 600-million-word-dataset comprising over 150,000 texts and spanning 210 years (1810-2019). Top descriptors ( = 135,659) of nouns related to age (e.g. senior citizen), familial roles (e.g. grandmother) and occupational roles (e.g. old(er) doctor) were compiled and rated for valence (negative-positive) on a 5-point scale. Age-based framing was associated with the most negative portrayals of older adults, specifically a 16% decline over 210 years. Foregrounding their familial roles buffered this negativity and resulted in a 4% decline. Occupational roles were associated with the most positive portrayals of older adults, increasing by 2% over the same period. Our findings underscore the need for society to unlearn any false and harmful beliefs surrounding older adults' abilities and contributions. We propose a strategy to reframe aging by de-emphasizing age and adopting a role-centric approach.
随着年龄较大的个体在支持家庭和为工作场所做出贡献方面发挥重要作用，了解社会如何看待他们在这些社会角色中的角色至关重要。本研究比较了美国 210 多年来基于年龄（例如，老年人）、家庭角色（例如，祖母）和职业角色（例如，老年医生）的老年人的框架，并探讨了与每种框架相关的情感和叙述。我们创建了美国英语最大的历史语料库——一个包含超过 150,000 个文本且跨越 210 年（1810-2019 年）的 6 亿字数据集。与年龄（例如，老年人）、家庭角色（例如，祖母）和职业角色（例如，老年医生）相关的名词的顶级描述符（=135,659）被编译并在 5 分制上进行了情绪（负面-正面）评分。基于年龄的框架与对老年人最负面的描述相关，特别是在 210 年中下降了 16%。突出他们的家庭角色缓冲了这种消极情绪，导致下降了 4%。职业角色与对老年人最积极的描述相关，在同一时期增加了 2%。我们的研究结果强调了社会需要摒弃任何围绕老年人能力和贡献的错误和有害观念。我们提出了一种通过淡化年龄并采用以角色为中心的方法来重塑老龄化的策略。
