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Embracing Aging: Winner in A Name for the Ages

Cathy Bollinger
For the York Daily Record

Old as dirt or vintage like a great wine? 4 p.m. dinners and senior moments or redefining senioritis? Respect your elders or ancient and elderly?

A Name for the Ages graphic.

York County Community Foundation’s Embracing Aging initiative took a spin on this year’s election to question stereotypes associated with an aging adult and to create a conversation about what name York Countians prefer and why.

A Name for the Ages campaign launched on Oct. 3 and ended at midnight November 8.

Why did we do this? Because attitudes towards aging affect every aspect of a community, from relationships in the workplace to long-range planning for housing and transportation. These attitudes permeate our everyday life. By questioning these stereotypes, we can discover together what it means to be an age-inclusive community.

Embracing Aging suggested three candidates; Elder, Older Adult, and Senior. Some residents shared both negative and positive perceptions of each term in “man on the street” videos. People age 18 and older were invited to watch the videos, think about the term they prefer, vote, and share why.

No worries if one didn’t like any of the proposed candidates; they were invited to vote for “Other” and write in the term of their choice.

Almost 650 people voted. Older Adult quickly took an early lead and remained the top choice through the first half of the campaign. However, as more votes were cast, Senior jumped ahead and remained the preferred term.

A graph of the results for a poll on what  aging adults prefer to be called.

If voters chose, they could provide their age. We asked this because we wanted to see if any trends by word choice emerged.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents shared their age. The median age for all voters was 56. The median age by term was:

Senior - 60, Older Adult - 55, and Elder - 54.

Why did people vote the way they did?

The most frequently mentioned reason for selecting Senior was it implies the highest level obtained and earned; people look up to seniors for guidance. Voters selecting Older Adult did so because it describes who they are; they thought it was a natural progression from young and middle-aged adult. Respect was the top reason for those who selected Elder, along with implying wisdom and knowledge.

What about the Other category? Seasoned Adult, Mature Adult, and simply Adult were the most frequently mentioned.

A few people pushed-back, they didn’t feel the need for defining a term at all, and simply said “call me my name.” But overall, the campaign did get people talking about stereotypes in aging.

“Elder sounds like someone using a cane, walker or worse!”

“I don’t like Senior, it implies rank, and old age doesn’t outrank youth.”

“Older adult doesn’t make sense. To a teenager, a 40-year-old is an older adult, and being 40 is far from rocking chairs and hearing aids.”

What’s next? The results will be used by Embracing Aging in its work to improve attitudes around aging, especially as part of its Embracing Aging: Changing the Perceptions of Aging training. The goal of the training is to dispel aging misperceptions and increase understanding of older adults in people from across different generations.

To learn more about A Name for the Ages results, visit www.embracingaging.org/vote. To learn more about Embracing Aging and the aging training, contact Cathy Bollinger, managing director at cbollinger@yccf.org or call 848-3733.