Friendships, Stereotypes (Older Adult Research, Video 1:51)

Children as young as three years old have already started internalizing negative stereotypes about aging. A quick review of media portrayals of older adults and comments from people about them are great teachers for young impressionable minds. A greater problem, however, is that too many of the negative stereotypes young people internalize can stay with them throughout their own aging and unconsciously become embedded in their own lifestyles.

A common stereotype about aging is the portrayal of older adults as being lonely with little social support. Can expectations about aging impact friendships? Research focused on the relationship between positive aging expectations and later life friendships was done to explore these connections. This study examined questionnaire data from the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial, a randomized volunteer intervention for adults aged 60 years and older. Associations between expectations about aging and different types of social support were tested with these results:

1) Participants with more positive expectations at baseline increased their number of friends two years later and had greater overall perceived support availability twelve months later.

2) Only participants with at least average perceived support availability at baseline showed an association between expectations and later support availability.

These results are the first to link overall positive expectations regarding aging to the social domain. They confirm that overall expectations regarding aging can impact older adults, not only physically and cognitively, but also socially.

Shouldn’t we all just affirm our own healthy aging by promoting positive images about ourselves? Shouldn’t we just live our best lives and not limit ourselves based on our age numbers? Meet Millie and Evelyn who met at the retirement home where they live and quickly became best friends. In this video, they talk about the importance of friendships as they age.

You can view research performed by Detroit public school fourth graders on older adult stereotypes here. Their research was presented locally and nationally.

Frances Shani Parker, Author
Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback and e-book editions in America and other countries at online and offline booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Aging: How old are you really? (Research, Video 2:48)

Do you only think of aging as lost youth, or do you think of it more as new opportunities for growth in another phase of your life? Several research studies show the way we feel about aging affects how we live our lives. Stop worrying about your age or other people’s ages. Don’t believe stereotypes about how people should look or act at a certain age.

Ask me how many hard lessons I learned, how many times I overcame, how much music spoke to my soul, how many words lifted me higher, how many people loved me back, how many mornings I woke up grateful. That’s how old I am. 

About the process of aging, people of all ages have worries. A study about worries of various ages concluded the highest degree of worry includes future financial security and memory loss. Surprisingly, however, most Americans are optimistic about aging, especially older adults who have learned resilience through their years of living life.

Aging is a fascinating process. The following video includes 10 interesting facts about aging that may surprise you.

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback and e-book editions in America and other countries at online and offline booksellers.
Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" – Intl. Trailer (2:35 mins.)

I’m a little partial to movies set in New Orleans, my hometown, and movies that deal with the elderly and mortality. This movie about a man named Benjamin Button (played by Brad Pitt), who is born in his eighties and ages backward, really grabbed me by the collar. His unusual story covers a time period from the end of World War I in 1918 to the 21st century.



Aging, a fascinating theme, is something none of us can stop, as much as we try to wrestle it to the ground. How extraordinary to live the highs and lows of life’s unpredictable journey, moving toward infancy while others become older! This movie, adapted from the classic 1920's story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, begins December 25, 2008.


Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas, Tilda Swinton

5 Golden Globe Nominations, including Best Picture



Frances Shani Parker, Author
"Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes”
“Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog”