Age Stratification and the Elderly

General Characteristics of Age Stratification

Aging is a universal experience. Each age stratum, however, is also divided by race, class, and gender differences. The presence of these divisions decreases the likelihood that conflicts based on age alone will disrupt a society. Age strata are also interdependent. As changes occur in one age stratum, other strata are affected. As individuals in an age stratum move through time, the surrounding society is affected and simultaneously affects the individuals.

The situation is similar for age cohorts. Age cohorts move through their life course together and are replaced by subsequent cohorts. Cohorts differ from one another because each cohort experiences some common life events at about the same age, such as wars or economic depressions. There is, however, also great variation within cohorts, caused by such factors as differing occupations, marital status, and levels of education. Furthermore, individuals in a cohort may enter life stages, such as parenthood or retirement, at different times.

Sociologist Leonard Cain differentiates age status [Page 18]from age stratification. Cain maintains that age status focuses on justice and equity issues, whereas age stratification emphasizes conflict and tension between age strata. Age status is institutionalized in societies in that individuals and cohorts are accorded the rights and duties that are associated with their age, regardless of whether they move through age statuses on or off time.

Age integration is a characteristic of families and households, where individuals of varying ages are mutually dependent. Age segregation is common in Western societies in the spheres of work, education, and leisure. Age segregation has been called the “institutionalization of the life course” (Kohli 2000, p. 279), meaning that outside family life, individuals are mostly engaged with their age peers. Social and economic policies tend to reinforce age segregation. Riley and Riley argued in a 1994 article in The Gerontologist that age integration would improve the quality of life for all ages and that age should be less pivotal in determining roles.

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