When I’m 75: College Students’ Self Perceptions of the Challenges of Aging

Abstract

Despite robust literature on people’s attitudes toward aging, far less is known about attitudes toward one’s own aging, especially among college students. We examined college students’ self-perceptions of the challenges of aging using essays from a “When I’m 75” assignment implemented at the beginning and end of the semester in an introductory gerontology course. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyze 24 students’ perceptions of their own aging at age 75. The superordinate theme, challenges of aging, was identified along with five subordinate themes: deterioration, age-related impairments, mental health, loneliness and loss, and experiencing ageism. Findings suggest that after completing the course, students both demonstrated an understanding of realistic age-related changes and had (contradictory) stereotypical ideas of what it would be like to be 75. Findings have implications for research that continues to evaluate self-perceptions and contributes to the development of pedagogical strategies and tools that promote students’ optimal aging.

Keywords

ageism attitudes challenges of aging college students future time perspective self-perceptions

In western society, attitudes toward aging have been and continue to be overwhelmingly negative; old age is typically perceived as a period of decline and/or disability (Burnes et al., 2019; Thornton, 2002). Younger adults in particular have a general “distaste” for older adults and aging (Kite et al., 2005), despite being increasingly exposed to them in personal and professional situations. For example, when faced with their own aging in an age progression simulation, younger adults had an increase in anxiety about aging and negative stereotypes toward older adults at pretest compared to posttest (Rittenour & Cohen, 2016). Yet, at the same time, when younger adults were questioned about their own future, they reported positive, sometimes to the point of unrealistic, future expectations (Busseri et al., 2009; Kornadt et al., 2015). These contradictory perceptions of young adults’ “future selves” warrant further explanation.

The future self (sometimes referred to as the possible self) is an individual’s idea of what they would like to become (or are afraid of becoming) in the future. According to Markus and Nurius (1986), future selves “are not just any set of imagined roles or states of being. Instead they represent specific, individually significant hopes, fears, and fantasies” (p. 954). The future self is related to attitudes; research has shown that an individuals’ idea of their future self can change depending on attitudes about uncertainty, control, and level of pessimism or optimism (Rizzo & Chaoyun, 2017). For instance, attitudes toward a hoped for or feared future self can be a motivator; studies have found that both positive and negative attitudes toward the future impact motivation (Moss & Wilson, 2018). For example, when individuals hold more positive attitudes toward their future self, they are motivated to work toward more financial gain and better quality of life (Leen & Lang, 2013). Conversely, when individuals report a bleaker future, they aren’t motivated to work toward bettering themselves (Treadway et al., 2010).

Research has demonstrated that individuals who hold negative attitudes toward aging generally visualize a less optimal future self (e.g., Jarrott & Savla, 2016; Lloyd et al., 2018). Fear of the aged future self specifically has been linked to prejudice against older adults. For example, Nelson (2005) maintained that as young individuals become aware of the possibility of decline, they embrace ageist thoughts and behaviors to distract them from that future possibility. Similarly, Rittenour and Cohen (2016) found that younger adults, when faced with an age-related illness, may deny these aspects of their aging experience as a coping strategy. This suggests that both young and old adults might not be well equipped to face the negative realities of aging.

Distinct from the future self literature, substantial research has documented that middle-aged and old adults’ self-perceptions of aging are important to later life functioning. On the one hand, positive self-perceptions of aging have been linked to better health, well-being, and longevity (Hooker et al., 2019; Levy et al., 2002). On the other hand, negative self-perceptions have been associated with increased risk of falls, difficulty in performing ADLs and IADLs, and increased hospitalizations over a 3 year period (Moser et al., 2011). Further, Shrira et al. (2011) found that older adults who believed that they could prevent or repair potential decline in their own future aging believed they would experience “optimal functioning” (p. 195), whereas those who believed that the future would consist largely of decline believed they would demonstrate inactivity and resignation. Given the research on middle-aged and old adults’ self-perceptions of aging and its correlates, it is surprising that research regarding college-aged students focuses primarily on attitudes toward aging and less about self-perceptions of aging.

Over 2 decades ago, Peterson and Wendt (1990) maintained that making college students aware of their own aging was critical to helping them develop them into competent students and gerontologists. With the increasing number of older adults and the need for more individuals who are interested in aging-related careers, let alone preparing for their own aging, this sentiment continues to be a concern today (Gendron et al., 2019). A clear understanding of college students’ own aging processes has the potential to provide a starting point to develop interventions to change attitudes and behaviors toward older adults and personal aging (Gendron et al., 2019). For example, research has demonstrated that when individuals are encouraged to take the viewpoint of out-groups, prejudice and stigma are reduced (e.g., Galinsky & Moskowitz, 2000). In addition, students who have a better self-perception of their own aging will be able to take control over their lives and adopt behaviors that promote more optimal aging (Diehl et al., 2014).

Method

As part of a larger investigation on the impact of an introductory gerontology course on college students’ perceptions of their own aging, at the beginning and end of the semester, 24 students wrote a paper describing themselves at age 75. Three superordinate themes that encompassed both positive and negative aspects of being old emerged from the larger project (i.e., challenges of aging, proactive steps to avoid negative aspects of aging, and housing considerations). In this article, only the superordinate theme challenges of aging is discussed.

Procedures and Participants

Participants were recruited from an introductory (100-level) undergraduate gerontology course taught by a faculty member during spring 2016. This 100-level course was approved for the university-wide liberal education and college-level social science requirements. As such, the course typically enrolled students at all levels (i.e., freshman through graduating seniors). During the first week of the semester, students wrote an essay (“When I’m 75”) in which they documented their perceptions about themselves at age 75. Specifically, it asked them to consider the following domains: physical, social, financial, emotional/mental, spiritual, and legacy. Students received credit for completing this assignment, but they were encouraged to write freely and the papers were not graded.

At the end of the semester, students reviewed, critiqued, and rewrote their initial essay based on what they had learned in the course. Because this assignment was a component of their final exam and therefore graded, students were given more detailed guidelines that required them to focus on salient aspect of aging, such as biological and psychological changes, social roles of older adults, formal and informal networks, financial changes, and the impact of older adults/themselves on society.

Midsemester, the lead researcher obtained Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval to visit the class to recruit students who were willing to allow their two essays to be included in this research. The students received no incentive for this study but were informed that it would be used for the lead researcher’s dissertation. Of the 25 students who were in attendance, 24 signed the consent form allowing the researcher to use their two papers as part of her dissertation research. The IRB protocol specified that the data would not be made available until after course grades were submitted to ensure that students’ participation did not affect their grade. The instructor of the course was never made aware of who participated in this study. The researcher did not know who participated until after final course grades had been submitted.

Of the 24 students who consented to participate in the research, 19 were female. The ages of the students ranged from 18 to 21 (M = 19.3). Students represented diverse majors and were primarily first-year students (56.5%), with some sophomores (26.1%), and juniors (17.4%). All participants’ names in this article have been changed.

Data Analysis

Sampling, data collection, and analysis were driven by Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). IPA explores how individuals make sense of their personal and social world by utilizing three key philosophical concepts: phenomenology, hermeneutics, and idiography (Smith, 1996). This approach enables the researcher to explore meaning and sense making among people who have a common shared experience in a particular context.

To engage with the students’ responses, the analytic plan of Smith et al. (2009) was followed; their six step approach consists of (1) reading and rereading, (2) initial noting, (3) developing emerging themes, (4) searching for connection across themes, (5) moving to the next case, and (6) looking for patterns across the cases. For the analysis, each participant’s two essays constituted one case, as per the guidelines of IPA. There were 24 cases in total. An important component of IPA is that the first four steps are applied to one case before moving on to the next. Only after all cases have been analyzed with steps one through five, the researcher does conduct step six.

Steps 1, 2, and 3: After reading and rereading the data (step 1), the researcher created a comprehensive set of notes and questions throughout the texts, which included descriptive, linguistic, and conceptual comments (step 2). By step three, the data had grown tremendously and was a mixture of the students’ and researcher’s work (i.e., the hermeneutic circle, one of the philosophical elements of IPA). Data were organized to observe emerging patterns. These patterns were added, collapsed, and expanded to create emerging themes.

As per the tenants of IPA, understanding the meaning of the content is more important than the frequency with which possible themes may appear in the text (Smith, 2004). Specific ways to look for patterns include: (1) abstraction, (2) subsumption, (3) polarization, (4) contextualization, (5) numeration, and (6) function (Smith et al., 2009). These strategies are not mutually exclusive. It is important to note that during this phase of analysis, the data became prioritized and reduced. Themes were not selected purely on the basis that they were prevalent in the data, but rather that they provided richness to the analysis. Step 4: The researcher looked for connections between the themes. Smith et al. suggested two ways of doing so: (1) list the themes in chronological order and connect them by related themes and (2) find patterns throughout the themes, even if the patterns are opposites. This required the researcher to “eye-ball” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 96) the list to find clusters that pulled toward each other. Themes and patterns that resulted from these data were similar in context and function, different, and/or frequently mentioned.

Step 5 and 6: In step 5, the researcher proceeded to the next case without using themes from the prior analyses to ensure the idiographic nature of IPA. The final step occurred after steps one through five were completed for each individual case. In step six, the researcher found patterns across cases. This included creating a list of subordinate themes and larger superordinate themes.

Results

Consistent with IPA, although each paper was read as one case that combined the beginning and end of the semester writing assignments, it was clear that students’ perceptions changed over the course of the semester. Specifically, in the beginning of the semester students emphasized their anxiety and fear toward aging. By the end of the semester, however, most students described feeling “less afraid” of aging and were more informed about the challenges they presented. As per the students’ passages, they knew life expectancy was increasing for Americans, and, despite advances in health care, that they could suffer from chronic, incurable diseases and/or need assistance with activities of daily living. The subordinate themes for challenges of old age were (1) deterioration, (2), age-related impairments, (3) mental health, (4) loneliness and loss, and (5) experiencing ageism.

Deterioration

The subordinate theme of deterioration highlighted how the students presented the challenges of aging for their physical and mental functioning; these concerns were typically expressed in papers from the beginning of the semester. Students relied on words or phrases that conveyed a feeling of the body slowly being destroyed; words such as “deterioration” or “destruction” were used to describe the challenges confronting the body and mind during the processes of aging. An example of this came from Alexandria, who wrote about enjoying being active with her family and friends at 75. However, she used powerful language to describe the potential changes in her body:

I probably won’t be climbing trees or skydiving, but I am terrified that my body will disintegrate and I will have to be pushed around in a wheelchair all feeble and quiet. I know 75 isn’t even that old, but it’s not really young either, is it?

For Alexandria, the term “disintegrate” illuminated her experience with her aging body and created powerful imagery of her becoming someone who is unable to be active or productive. This was consistent throughout most of the papers; students were often concerned about becoming feeble, quiet, dependent on others, and/or weak.

Alexandria’s quote regarding a challenge of aging was later contradicted in her assignment with a passage that suggested she would be “still healthy and in love, with kids and grandkids when I’m 75” and continue to “travel with friends and family and never lose my passion for life.” Contradictions such as Alexandria’s were typical in the students’ passages. It was common for a student to discuss an age-related challenge negatively and then later comment on how productive or healthy they would be, especially in the papers completed at the beginning of the semester. To the researcher, this signified that dealing with a frail or failing body and mind was an extreme challenge of becoming 75, but that students had a growing understanding toward the end of the semester that this would be more of a gradual change.

Age-Related Impairments

The subordinate theme age-related impairments reflected the students’ understanding of the challenges that age-related decline (e.g., performing ADLs and IADLs, and any age-related disabilities) could present at age 75 and was typical in both the beginning and end of the semester papers. Responses from the students varied with regard to the level of their anticipated impairment. Some students believed that no matter what, at 75 they would still be functional. Others believed they would have impairment(s), but still be independent. As Kim stated:

At the age of 75, I imagine I will have some limitations either from a disability or the effects of getting older. I will look to my younger family members to assist me with tasks such as going to the grocery or even housework that proves too difficult for me or my wife to complete. These various tasks are called IADL’s or instrumental activities of daily life.

Other students, however, presented a harsher scenario with regards to age-related impairments as they grew older. Some believed they would have constant pain, the inability to use certain limbs, and/or the inability to communicate with others. For instance, Jan’s passage on being a 75-year-old woman provides a powerful and emotional image that illuminated how frail and disempowered she believed an older individual could become:

As an older adult in an aging society, I will face many physical and psychological challenges. I’m sure “When I’m 75”, I will have many days where I will feel like a hopeless old lady and will look in the mirror and not like what I see. I will no longer be able to do the same things I was able to do when I was young, which will continuously discourage me. My body will ache, and each day I will feel I am getting more and more fragile. I will start forgetting things, feel depressed and alone some days, and will face much grief when I get to the age where my friends slowly start passing away. All of these things are challenges that come with the aging process, which is something I’m going to have to accept and learn to deal with.

Regardless of how students discussed their potential impairments and the challenges they expected at age 75, it is important to note that the students either later contradicted these comments (even Jan later discussed her good health) and/or needed the reader to know that they could change, fix, or alleviate the impairments by continuing to be healthy. This happened in both iterations of the paper, but typically by the end of the semester, students were more realistic when commenting on their age-related decline.

At times, the students’ writing seemed to suggest that they were aware they were writing toward a grade (e.g., they presented statistics and facts about disability increasing with age), but they did not expect that for themselves. This happened either because students insisted they would continue to be healthy in old age or because their grandparents did (do) not deal with this issue. For example, after explaining ADLs and IADLs and the potential loss of independence, Julia commented, “I do not foresee this being a problem, especially since my grandparents possess these skills and are older than 75.”

Mental Health

The subordinate theme mental health explored the students’ understanding of their mental well-being and the challenges they could possibly experience as a 75-year-old. Mental health was conceptualized by the students as both issues with psychological distresses (e.g., depression or anxiety) and/or cognitive functioning (e.g., forgetfulness or dementia).

In both the beginning and the end of the semester, students suggested that issues with mental health and/or cognitive functioning were something to fear because they would drastically change their quality of life and sense of self. Some students commented that they would be a “danger” to themselves if they were to forget who they were or how to perform certain activities. Others considered their life would be over if they had to deal with a cognitive change. As Nora suggested, “If I developed Dementia or depression as an older adult, this would also drastically affect my life because it would mean that I would not have the best quality of life possible.”

Most students consistently agreed that depression and cognitive decline was normal for old age, but they probably wouldn’t have to deal with it. They provided two reasons why: the first was that depression and/or cognitive issues didn’t genetically run in their family. As Rachel stated, “Mental impairments, on the other hand, may be more difficult to prevent. Like most older adults, I expect to experience some changes in my memory capabilities” but after discussing Alzheimer’s and dementia in detail, she stated it wouldn’t happen to her because it “doesn’t run in my family.” The second reason was depression and/or cognitive issues could be prevented by maintaining a healthy life and routine. As Matt stated, “If I do this I would less likely suffer from depression this is very common for older adults.” From the students’ prerogative, depression was something that could be overcome if you kept your mind and body healthy.

Loneliness and Loss

The students frequently noted that social contact was crucial not only at 75, but throughout their entire life course. However, at 75, most students conveyed a sense that they anticipated being lonely. Loneliness was seen as normal for older adults in both the beginning and end of the semester papers. Most students expressed concern about a decrease in visits from friends and family members and being alone. This is personified in a quote by Alexandria, who spent a good portion of her paper discussing how active she would be throughout her adult life. She took a moment to briefly reflect on the potential of loneliness. She stated:

One of my biggest fears of age is that I will reach 75 and not have any of the same people in my life that I do currently. I do not plan on having children so I will not have a large family or grandkids to keep myself busy. I’m worried that I will not stay in contact with my current friends or find a significant other to spend my life with. The fact that at the age of 75 I could not be in contact with a single person that has known me my entire life is terrifying.

Alexandria believed that she would not stay in contact with people she’s known her whole life because of her advanced age. Similar to Alexandria, a majority of the students expressed that as one gets older, it is harder to keep old and/or make new friends. Students conveyed this idea that being lonely or socially isolated was a real possibility, unless friendships were actively maintained.

At the end of the semester, students discussed the importance of being socially connected more than being lonely or isolated. However, because students understood the importance of being socially connected, when those ties were lost (i.e., the loss of a friend or family member through growing apart or death), they knew they would be impacted. As such, when it came to loneliness, there was not a significant difference between the beginning and end of the semester. For instance, Amy stated, “I feel very mortal as well as old when I hear about friends from my high school graduation class dying. Most have heart attacks or cancer.” Similarly, Jenn stated, “The lower life expectancy in men alone makes it more likely for me to be widowed at age 75... Not only will my memory, intelligence, emotions, and personality be worsened, but I may also be more sad or depressed because of the fact that my husband will be dead.” This line of reasoning (i.e., when someone I love dies, it will affect my health) was common among the students.

Losing loved ones was specifically mentioned as a challenge. Students did not hesitate to discuss the topic of death in their papers. However, they did not focus on their own death, but rather the death of their friends and/or family members. This was demonstrated in a quote from Trent, who placed great importance on his family life and gave an account of losing loved ones that conveyed a sense of difficulty in moving on after a loss:

Another battle that I could definitely struggle with at 75 is the loss of loved ones. Eventually, every single person will meet their end, and at 75, I’m sure I will have lost both my parents and maybe even a few friends. Death is certainly one of the most difficult certainties of life to cope with, and without support and love from those who are still with me, I can see myself battling with the grief that death causes for those who observe it.

Trent seemed unsure how to deal with the coping and grief that came with the death of a loved one; by using the word “battle,” Trent conveyed the sense that losing a loved one would be very difficult. He knew that he would dthat is, himself but was unsure about how to handle the challenge of losing those close to him.

Experiencing Ageism

Experiencing ageism expressed how students would experience discrimination based on their age and was typically a topic in the end of semester paper. The first paper completed by the students rarely touched on ageism or experiencing ageism but did rely on ageist language or concepts. By the second paper, ageism was understood as “universally experienced” (Andrea) by all older adults and specifically mentioned as a major challenge. Jim commented after his discussion of ageism, “one of the worst challenges that I imagine myself facing at 75 is the perception that I am incapable.” Jim was not alone in this sentiment. Most students commented on dealing with ageism, suggesting that it could be either deliberate or accidental. Scarlett’s quote regarding ageism provided a complete understanding of what older adults go through as they get older. She stated:

Many people see all older people as being slow and weak. I expect to see this type of prejudice and discrimination when I am 75. It is true that my physical and mental capabilities may not be as strong, but that does not mean that when I am old I will become unimportant. While, society may be changing in a positive manner to become more tolerant, many people do not see the older population as a group that needs protecting. I expect to experience some type of ageism when I am an older adult. People often think that elders do not have anything worth saying, because they are “old and senile”. I may not be taken as seriously when I am older.

Scarlett specifically discussed being underestimated, despite being a grown adult. In addition, she mentioned that even though society is changing, people still treat older adults as second-class citizens. This was a common sentiment among most of the students.

Discussion

The reality is that aging has the potential to be both positive and negative (Ory et al., 2003). Despite age-related increases in physical and mental decline and social losses, researchers have found that older adults in general exhibit age-graded stability (e.g., Aldwin et al., 2017). However, we know little about the valence or content of college students’ perceptions of their own future aging. This research represents a first step in addressing this gap.

Although the larger study from which these data derived found that college students identified both positive and negative aspects of their future aging, this article only reports on the challenges they identified. Evidence from this study suggests that these students were less fearful and had a better understanding of the challenges of aging at the end compared to the beginning of the semester, but relied on well-known age-related stereotypes or fears throughout. For instance, by the end of the semester, the students understood the changes to cognitive functioning and the biological body, including expected age-related impairments and how they could gradually change over their life course. This was in contrast to the beginning of the semester where students were fearful of deteriorating or being completely frail. Likewise, by the end of the semester, students had a better understanding of the impact of socializing and ageism on health, even though at times they could not make the connection to themselves. They also understood that aging is an opportunity for growth if they remained healthy, but this ultimately created contradictions throughout their papers. It appeared at times that the students subscribed to both the medical model of aging that proposes old as a progressive decline and the more popular human development model that sees old age as a period of growth and development (Aldwin et al., 2017; Hayflick, 2004). In an attempt to straddle both of these ideas, they relied on well-known stereotypes and/or their grandparents.

Researchers have grappled with how to combat both positive and negative attitudes toward aging and the pervasiveness of stereotypes of aging for decades (e.g., Achenbaum, 2015; Butler, 1980). During this time, researchers have explored age-stereotype internalization, self-perceptions of aging in older adults and implicit and explicit age biases. Despite these efforts, the results are overwhelmingly consistent: regardless of age, people tend to think that aging is a disease or a time of mourning, frailty, death, and/or sadness (Jenkins, 2017). Similarly, college students in this research overwhelmingly saw aging as a challenge; it was a time of fear, deterioration, disability, and loneliness.

In part, these findings could reflect students’ personal experiences with older adults. Cummings et al. (2000) suggested that attitudes toward aging grow from the lived reality of participants’ current life situations. Therefore, their personal experiences with older adults might not have included those who were struggling physically, mentally, socially, or economically. As per some of the students’ responses, currently their grandparents were happy, healthy, and generally from a higher socioeconomic status; as such the students might have more extensive knowledge of what it is like to be with an older adult who is healthier (Anderson et al., 2005) and therefore also relied on (negative) stereotypes they have heard or seen from popular media to complete their perceptions of their own aging. Additionally, this could explain why the students contradicted themselves or assigned others in their paper, rather than themselves, age-related challenges.

Given the overwhelmingly negative images of aging and older adults that are portrayed in the media (Gendron et al., 2019) and even communicated by aging advocates (Gendron et al., 2018), educators who share aging-related content must be purposeful in selecting course content and how it is communicated. This is especially the case because there can be negative consequences of negative and positive attitudes about aging and older adults. As educators, we have the knowledge and pedagogical tools to familiarize our students with the realities of aging. Most students, including those within the Medicine, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (MSTEM) fields, are not required to take an aging-related course. General education courses that include age-related content, are typically students’ first (and oftentimes only) introduction to aging-related or gerontological concepts. Based on our findings, our suggestions are twofold: (1) prioritize teaching about the realities of aging (both the challenges and opportunities) and exploring and dispelling age-related stereotypes in aging courses/curricula and (2) make aging personal.

First, stereotypical attitudes of aging, both positive and negative, need to be consistently addressed in the classroom. While endorsing positive stereotypes (e.g., playing Bridge or traveling) is not necessarily a bad thing (e.g., Levy, 2009; Meisner, 2012), internalizing negative stereotypes can be harmful (e.g., Levy & Leifheit-Limson, 2009). For instance, at a social level, assuming all older adults are independent, wealthy, and wise might take away society’s responsibility to help provide services; on the other hand, assuming all older adults are needy and frail could prevent people from being engaged fully and might increase ageism. The students in this research believed that dealing with ageism was normal and expected at age 75. This finding was unfortunate, considering that we (perhaps unrealistically) aspire for students in an introduction to gerontology course to be future catalysts for change. If students expect ageism not only to occur but to be normal, how can they combat it now and as older adults?

Second, learning about aging needs to be personal. Research has consistently demonstrated that younger adults do not focus on becoming an older adult, but rather their careers, social life, and personal characteristics, into middle age (Dark-Freudeman et al., 2006), perhaps explaining their lack of foresight on their own aging. This could be because people feel more connected to their current self than themselves in the future. As Hershfield, 2011 points out, the future at times is so distant that the imagined future self is often treated as another person.

However, when younger adults do not take in to account their future as an older adult, important aspects of aging tend to be overlooked. For example, missing from most of the students’ discussions were realistic retirement planning, issues regarding caregiving (for themselves or others), planning financially for health issues, and discussions about their own dying process. Planning for the future is complex; it involves navigating complicated service systems (Heller & Caldwell, 2006), making major decisions and having difficult discussions with family and friends (Feeg & Elebiary, 2005). Research has found that disassociating oneself with aging negatively impacts future events (e.g., Mignani et al., 2017). For example, disassociation toward aging can impact an individual’s willingness to save for their retirement (Topa et al., 2017) and desire to change unhealthy habits that could affect them in later life (Gellert et al., 2012). Additionally, Simon et al. (2015) found that a major barrier to advanced directives was individuals’ beliefs that they were not old enough or sick enough; too healthy; or too emotional thinking about death. This ultimately prevented them from taking necessary steps to plan for their death. It is crucial to begin future planning as early as possible to avoid crisis situations involving physical, social, and financial health in later life.

Limitations and Future Directions

As with any study, this research was not without limitations. IIPA calls for a small, homogenous sample to best represent the detailed perceptions of the group. That was achieved with a sample of predominately white, female, freshman, and sophomore student volunteers who were part of a convenience sample enrolled in an introductory gerontology course. Although the sample was consistent with IPA requirements, it is possible that a different group of students would have elicited different responses. In addition, unfortunately, sociodemographic information about the students, such as their current attitudes about older adults, health behaviors, and experience with older adults, was not collected. It would be interesting to examine how these and other demographic and experiential factors were associated with students’ perceptions of themselves at age 75.

Furthermore, due to the interpretative approach of IPA, different researchers could arrive at distinctly different conclusions (Smith et al., 2009. Themes and conceptual similarities could have been overlooked when interpreting the data; despite the rigor of IPA, this study still remains the researcher’s subjective interpretations. Third, it is possible that the use of a course assignment with preformulated prompts as the data source both restricted students’ creativity and potentially produced a context in which their essays reflected what they thought the instructor wanted them to say, although the use of clearly identified (negative) stereotypes throughout many of the essays argues against the latter limitation. Finally, it is important to remember that three superordinate themes emerged from data. Although this article reports on challenges of aging, students’ essays also revealed proactive steps to avoid negative aspects of aging and housing considerations (manuscripts in preparation).

Older adults are going to increasingly play a significant role in the personal and professional lives of students in our society. Americans are living longer than ever, and with that comes not only a growing need for trained professionals who understand and are sensitive to the needs of older adults but individuals who understand the complexities of their own aging. It is imperative that educators provide the aging-related/gerontological knowledge that will combat age-related stereotypes and promote realistic attitudes toward the growing aging population. Having a firm understanding of our students’ baseline self-perceptions of their own aging may prove more useful in developing course content and curricula than knowing their attitudes toward aging or older adults in general. It is our hope that our findings serve as a foundation for future research that continues to evaluate self-perceptions of aging and contributes to the development of pedagogical strategies and tools that promote students’ optimal aging.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Kate de Medeiros for her guidance during the analytic process.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Sarah J. Hahn

Author Biographies

Sarah J. Hahn is an assistant professor of Behavioral Science at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, NY. Her primary research interests include gerontological pedagogy and the most private places people age, including their home environment and end of life.

Jennifer M. Kinney is a professor of Gerontology in the Department of Sociology and Gerontology at Miami University (Oxford, OH). Her primary research interests include the impact of dementia on individuals and families, Montessori-based and creative arts interventions to promote quality of life among individuals with dementia, and gerontological pedagogy.

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