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Discover How Baby Boomers Can Make an Impact

Baby boomers are an interesting group. You are a baby boomer if you were born between the years of 1946 and 1964. There were approximately 76 million baby boomers born in the United States alone during those years.

What is one of the things that makes this group so interesting? Currently, the first baby boomers are at the traditional age of retirement. The later baby boomers, which I am a part of, are at the traditional age of midlife. Both groups are at a point in time where they are evaluating their lives and considering what they will do in the future. Both groups want to lead a life that is full of meaning and purpose.

The new retirees are only leaving their first careers. They’re certainly not planning to coast through their remaining years. This group is living longer and has more vitality than ever before. They’re looking for a second career that is focused on what they want to do and enjoy. They’re looking for ways they can make a difference. Additional income may or may not be necessary. Many are looking for opportunities to volunteer either part time or full time.

What about the younger baby boomers who are now going through a “midlife crisis?” I had always heard this phase in life described as a time when a person would buy fast cars and indulge in bad and dangerous vices. That may be true for some. However, for many it is a time in life when they are considering the impact they can have on others and the world in general. They are looking for more meaning in their life. Ultimately, giving back to society in the form of volunteering is a strong possibility.

I’m excited about the positive impact that baby boomers can make. If you’re a baby boomer:

Discover what you are passionate about.
Discover the skills and experiences you have developed throughout your life that can help others. Consider what you are good at and what you enjoy doing.
Identify one or more organizations that support a cause you feel strongly about. An organization might be a local fraternal or religious group. It might be a charity. If you need some ideas, contact your local volunteer center such as the United Way.
Contact those organizations and offer your services. Many non-profit organizations need help in a variety of skill areas.
Have fun being involved with other like-minded people while helping to make the world a better place.

It doesn’t matter if you only have one hour a week or 60 hours a week to donate. You will make a difference and feel great about what you are doing at the same time.

Death Anxiety Among the Elderly- the Impact of Children

Journal of Psychological Researches, 1998, Vol. 42, No. 1, P: 32-34

INTRODUCTION

Death anxiety became a topic of psychological interest in the late 1950’s. From its inception “thanatology” has been a multidisciplinary field including contributions from all disciplines. The definition of death anxiety has been the most perplexing task for a researcher till today. In the opinion of earlier reviewers, such as Kastenbaum & Costa (1977) much confusion in the literature on death attitudes can be traced to the “careless interchange of ‘fear’ and ‘anxiety,’ each of which implies different approaches”, for e.g., if fear represents a more realistic reaction to a specific danger, anxiety refers to a more neurotic response that is out of proportion to any actual external hazard (Choron, 1974). Peterson (1980) concluded that the study of death and dying “is severely limited in terms of both methodology and on theory.

Death is reality in the lives of adults; in adolescence, it may still be regarded as a stranger, but by old age it has come to be viewed as frequent, unwelcome companion of life’s journey (Stillion, 1995). Lieberman and Tobin (1980) maintain that older people do not generally have the same reluctance to discuss death and may, openly resolve fears on mortality as they review their lives. They suggested that elderly may have simply accumulated enough unpleasant life events over the years to make dying seem less traumatic. Sinha (1971) indicates that “fear of death in the elderly is a result of psychological deterioration.”

Kogan & Wallach (1961) found that adults of all ages ranked death as the most aversive of a wide range of concepts, even though every one evaluated death negatively, the elderly persons rated it more positive than else. Mullins & Lopez (1982) show evidences that old (75+) may become more death anxious than young old (60-75). There is not yet enough evidence to provide a secure interpretation of older respondents’ lower death concern.

Elderly with sound emotional health, married and with more number of children received lower death anxiety scores (Baum & Boxley, 1984). Elders who perceived time as slow and those who lived in institutions tends to feel more anxious about death (Baum, 1983). Elderly with satisfactory family-ties and more life satisfaction received less death anxiety scores (Tate, 1982).

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

Review of literature on death anxiety leads to the conclusion that not much research has been done both in abroad and in India to study the role of children in the experience of death anxiety. Hence this study has been attempted to find out the influence of children in the experience of death anxiety among the elderly. It has already been proved that presence of more children results in lower death anxiety among the elderly (Baum & Boxley, 1984).

METHOD

Sample

Sample comprised of 30 men and 30 women elderly ranging in age from 50 to 82 years (mean age= 63.1 years) forming a sample size of 60. The samples were selected from Coimbatore District (Manchester of South India) in Tamil Nadu. The participants were contacted individually by the researcher and data was collected by face-to-face interview.

Tools

The tools used in this study for data collection by the researcher were:

1. Personal Information Schedule: An “Information Schedule” was designed by the investigator to procure demographic and biographic information from the samples required for the study.

2. Leming’s fear of death scale (1979-80): This scale comprised of 26 statements with 6 possible response outcomes i.e., 1 as ‘Strongly Agree,” “Agree,” “tend to agree,” “tend to disagree,” and “Strongly disagree.” Each statement carries scores from 1 to 6 and the respondent is to circle the category which he/she feels suitable. All such scores are added to give the total score. The maximum score is 156 and minimum is 26.

STATISTICAL ANALAYSIS

Mean, standard deviation and “t” test were the statistics calculated.

Table I: Shows the influence of children in the experience of death anxiety among the elderly

Variable More Children

(n=24) No/less Children

(n=36) “t” p

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

2.185

Death Anxiety

79

4.78

88.33

18.19

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Since no significant gender differences were found in the experience of death anxiety, the results are presented with data combined. The results summarized in Table I shows that the‘t’ value for 58 df is significant below .05 level of confidence which indicate that elderly with more children experience less death anxiety than elderly with less and no children, this is in accordance with prior findings (eg., Reinhardt and Fisher, 1988; Baum & Boxley, 1984; etc) which described the relationship with children as providing more stimulation, ego-support and utility in latter life.

REFERENCES

Baum, S.K (1983). Older People’s anxiety about after life. Psychological Reports. Vol. 52 (3), 895-898.

Baum, S.K & Boxely, R.L (1984). Age denial: Death denial in the elderly: Death Education. Vol. 8(5-6), 419-423.

Choron, J (1984). Death and modern man. New York: Mac Millan.

Kastenbaum, R & Costa, P.T (1977). Psychological perspectives on death. Annual Review of Psychology, 28, 225-240.

Kogan, N & Wallach, M.A (1961). Age changes in values and attitudes. Journal of Gerontology, 16, 272-280.

Liberman, M.A & Tobbin, S.S (1983). The experience of oldage, stress, coping and survival. New York: Basic Books.

Mullins, L.C & Lopez, M.A (1982). Death anxiety among nursing home residents. A comparison of the young old-old. Death Education, 6, 75-86.

Peterson, J.A. (1980). “Social aspects of death & dying and mental health” in Birren, J.E and Sloane, R.B (Eds.). Handbook of mental health and aging. Engle Wood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall.

Reinhardt, J.P & Fisher, C.D (1988). Kinship versus friendship: social adaptation in married and widowed elderly women. Women and Health. Vol. 14(3-4), 191-211.

Sinha, S.N (1971). Lonely Old Man. Indian Journal of Gerontology, Vol. 3 & 4.

Stillion, J. (1995). Death in the lives of Adults: Responding to the Tolling of Bell. In Wass, H and Neimeyer, R (Eds.) Dying: Facing the facts, Washington, Taylor & Francis, 303-322.

Tate, L.A (1982). Life satisfaction and death anxiety in aged women. International Journal of Aging and Human Development. Vol. 15(4), 299-306.

Thorson, J. A & Powell, F.C (1988). Elements of death anxiety and meanings of death. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 44, 696-701.

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Will Baby Boomers Impact Your Website Design?

If you haven’t thought of Baby Boomers in regard to website design, you’re not on top of things.

The first of the Baby Boomer group are turning 60 and they are retiring. Why should you care? For starters, Baby Boomers are the largest segment of our population. That would be a lot of people to ignore. And their needs and desires are going to differ from those of the, up to now, very young computer users.

The first of the Baby Boomer group came to computers late. Although they might not have warmed to the idea of a computer driven world if left alone, a huge segment of this population has been forced into the computer world by their employers. Having gained some comfort with computers in the workplace, Baby Boomers have become much more likely to make computers a staple item in their homes.

Although I am aware of the dry statistics about Baby Boomers, much of what I am saying about Baby Boomers is from first hand observation.

I live near Palm Springs. The population in this area on a year round basis is an older population than that of most locals across the country. Many retirees have made this their full time home because of the climate. And, every fall and winter our population balloons when many retirees flow to our community in RV’s for the season. Plus another large group who maintain winter homes here.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because maybe I know some things you may not have thought about. You see, I know, from first hand observation that these retirees, many of them Baby Boomers, bring lap top computers in those RV’s. And many who have Winter homes here, have them equipped with desktop computers. I also know, that these Baby Boomers are not just sending email and jokes. They are surfing!

Baby Boomers are not sitting by the window watching the neighbors go by. These people are busy. They love to shop, they love to travel, they have money. Baby Boomers are going to spend some of their time online shopping and if you want your share of that market, you’d better be ready to meet their wants and needs in planning your website design.

That brings us to what this all has to do with website design. Bifocals! Reading glasses! Many people at or soon after 40 find that reading is not as easy as it used to be. Even many who have always had good vision and never before needed glasses find that reading can be difficult. Anyone designing a website should know that reading online is harder than just reading a book. Whether you do your own website design, or have a professional design your website, keep this in mind. Making your website an easy read is important for all your visitors. It is especially important as Baby Boomers become such a large part of your potential market.

The Baby Boomer phenomenon is just at it’s beginning. The Baby Boomer segment of the population will span most of the next twenty years. The last of the Baby Boomer group will be 42 this year.

Consider the size of your fonts when designing your websites. Contrast is another important factor. I see many websites that not only have tiny fonts, but they are often in muted shades even a twenty year old would find a challenge.

Many elements of website design are important, when you consider the needs and the tastes of the group you are marketing to. Audio with no surfer control, flash, colors that are hard on the eyes, small fonts, lack of contrast between font color and background could all be a turn off.

Considering the following five factors could be important to the degree of success you have in your online business over the next few years.

1. Baby Boomers are surfing.

2. Baby Boomers like to spend money.

3. Baby Boomers have money.

4. Baby Boomers will have time in the coming years to surf and shop.

5. Baby Boomers as the years go by will be from the younger segment of this population and will have had more time and experience using computers and the internet.

Will Baby Boomers shop with you? Or, will they find another website that has implemented into their website design what these folks are looking for, and are comfortable with? Baby Boomers will be the largest segment of our population for most of the next twenty years. Make this a consideration when you plan your website design.

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