Adaptation to Living in a Retirement Community
Year: 2017
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: For over one year, we have been residents of a very well designed town house in a retirement community, that emphasizes independence over dependency. We are living the experience of old age, after studying it for decades. We are now “they.” Thoughts of increasing frailty and death are in the air. Our multiple challenges include: (1) maintaining and modifying our social roles and outside ties to allow continuity of our individual sense of personal identity (Atchley, 1971). (2) Recognizing personal and societal themes of ageism, (Calasanti, 2003), both inside and outside our retirement community; and (3) adapting to and resisting the structures of community living, to maximize our sense of residential comfort and residential mastery (Golant, 2015). We discuss how our gerontological perspectives are reflected in our experience of living in an age-segregated community.
Source: Innovation in Aging
Authors: M.S. Moss, S.Z. Moss
Institution: Arcadia University
Language: English
Subfield: General Health Professions
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,977
OpenAlex ID: W2733398141