Top Papers in the Communication and Aging Division

Abstract
Grounded in communication accommodation theory and conflict management frameworks, this study adopted a content analysis approach to examine conflict initiating factors and management styles in the written accounts of intergenerational communication in mother/daughter-in-law conflicts from 135 Taiwanese daughters-in-law. Results showed that old-to-young criticism (42.2%, n = 57) was the most frequent initiating factor in intergenerational conflict, followed by old-to-young illegitimate demand, young-to-old criticism, and generation disagreements/generation gap. The results also revealed that the most frequently adopted conflict management style by mothers-in-law was competing style (84.4%, n =114), especially in managing conflict initiated by mother-in-law-to-daughter-in-law criticism and illegitimate demand. When mothers-in-law adopted competing style, daughters-in-law tended to utilize the same style 41.2% of the time. Implications of the findings were discussed with reference to the prior literature on intergroup/intergenerational communication and aging research, conflict management, family relationships, the age-based cultural value of filial piety. 

Following Queen Elizabeth II's death on September 8, 2022, people across the globe took to social media to commemorate the event. As a long-reigning monarch and member of the Greatest Generation, the queen's death creates a unique context for understanding how generational icons are collectively discussed and mourned on social media platforms like Twitter. This study involved a random subsample of 2,368 (N = 590) publicly available tweets, including the keywords "Queen Elizabeth" and "generation" posted during the United Kingdom's official mourning period. Hybrid qualitative content analysis combining both inductive and deductive coding yielded seven forms of generational discourse (QEII as a Representative of the Greatest Generation; QEII's Reign Spanning Generations; QEII's Significance to Past, Present, and Future Generations of the British monarchy; QEII's Death as a Defining Moment for Generations; QEII's Death Marking the End/Beginning of an Era; QEII's Personal Legacy and Impact upon Generations; QEII's Death Highlighting Generational Differences). The study also revealed five mourning practices throughout the discourse (Memorialization, Reminiscence, Emotional Expression, Digitized Tributes, Condolences). Implications are discussed for the study of generations and how members of these generations are stereotyped, iconized, and collectively mourned on Twitter. 

Our population is aging and at the same time, virtual reality (VR) hardware is becoming more prevalent and accessible. As such, there is growing interest in applications of VR to improve the lives of older adults. Unfortunately, the limited existing research on older adults and VR largely treats older adults as a monolith, comparing older adults to younger adults and/or only sampling "younger" older adults. This is problematic as work in gerontology and geriatrics demonstrates that there are substantial differences in the perceptual systems and physical capabilities of older-older adults and younger-older adults which may affect VR experiences. In this study, we explore age differences in older adults' experiences using VR in a field study of VR use among a large (N = 245) and age-diverse (M age = 83.6 years old, SD age = 7.9, range = 65 - 103) sample of nursing home and assisted living facility residents across 10 US states. We found that age was negatively associated with the extent to which older adults enjoyed VR experiences. However, the negative relationship between age and older adults' attitudes toward VR was significantly less negative than the relationship between age and their attitudes towards other technologies (cell phones and voice assistants). We also found that the caregiving staff who facilitated the VR experiences for residents enjoyed the activity relative to other activities and felt it to be beneficial to their relationship with residents. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research and practice around older adults and VR. 

Given the aging of the paid workforce, it is increasingly important to understand how older adults negotiate the intersection of their work and personal lives in beneficial ways that increase enhancement and decrease interference between these domains. This study examined associations among perceived spousal social support, attitudes toward one's own aging, and reports of how older adult employees manage the work-life interface. Analysis of survey responses from 934 working older adults in the United States indicated that (a) increased positive spousal social support was associated with more positive attitudes toward aging, whereas more negative social support from a partner or spouse was associated with more negative attitudes toward aging and (b) more positive attitudes toward aging were associated with decreased interference and increased enhancement between participants' work and non-work domains. In addition, eight significant mediation relationships were identified including that perceived positive social support from a spouse indirectly increased work-life enhancement and decreased interference through more positive reported attitudes toward aging. Findings offer important practical implications for older workers, their families and employers, and empirical implications regarding the work-life interface.