Old and young, talking again

On Fridays at 10 a.m., Richard Bement and Zach Ahmed sign up for their weekly video chat. The program that brought them together sparks online discussions and suggests art-related activities, but the two largely ignore that.

“We just started talking about things that were important to us,” said Mr. Ahmed, 19, a pre-med student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Since the couple met more than a year ago, topics of conversation have included: Pink Floyd, in a long exploration led by Mr. Bement, 76, a retired sales manager in Milford Township, Ohio; their religious beliefs (the oldest interlocutor is Episcopalian; the younger is Muslim); their families; changing gender norms; and poetry, including Mr. Ahmed's own efforts.

“There is a misconception that these two generations cannot communicate with each other,” Mr Bement said. “I don't think that's true.”

“Zach tells me about his organic chemistry class, about being a student in 2024. I give Zach the opportunity to share with me what it's like to be him, and vice versa.”

Miami University began Opening Minds Through Art, a program designed to promote intergenerational understanding, in 2007 and introduced an online version in 2022. This semester, approximately 70 couples have enrolled in the video program. Another 73 students participate in OMA-sponsored arts activities with people with dementia at a nursing home, a senior center and an adult day program.

There are thousands of similar programs, said Donna Butts, executive director of Generations United, which promotes such efforts. Intergenerational programs allow toddlers to play in daycare centers with nursing home residents, older adults and elementary school children doing community gardening, or students and seniors joining forces against climate change.

“As age segregation has increased in our society, the impulse to try to overcome it has certainly grown,” says Karl Pillemer, a Cornell gerontologist who has led research on intergenerational communication.

Factors such as early retirement, age-segregated housing and a decline in membership in churches and traditional social organizations have led to “a decline in opportunities for natural intergenerational interactions,” said Dr. Pillemer.

“There are entire industries where older people are unusual,” he added, pointing to advertising, entertainment and technology. “Most people's networks consist only of people ten years older or ten years younger than themselves.”

One reason that matters is that documented old ageism has a negative impact on the health of the elderly. Repeatedly, studies demonstrating the impact of older adults' negative attitudes toward aging, many led by Yale psychologist Dr. Becca Levy, found links between negative attitudes about aging and the risks of cardiovascular events such as strokes and heart attacks, and psychiatric illnesses, including depression. and fear.

In contrast, people with positive feelings about age perform better on memory and hearing tests, function better, and recover more quickly from periods of disability. And they live longer.

Age-related attitudes emerge early in childhood, but can be changed, Dr. Levy finds out. Intergenerational programs are one way to combat this.

For example, several studies by OMA have shown that students had already done this after one semester improved general posture for people with dementia and more comfort for them.

In another study, younger participants developed greater affection, kinship, involvement and enthusiasm in older people with dementia, compared to students who did not participate. Research with medical students who participated found similar results in OMA.

Furthermore, “as we've gotten more information about intergenerational programs and enough high-quality studies using comparison groups, the news keeps getting better,” says Dr. Pillemer, the lead author of a 2019 meta-analysis finding that intergenerational programs significantly reduced the age difference among younger participants.

a recent meta-analysis 23 intergenerational program studies from nine countries found other effects, including less depression, better physical health and greater 'generativity' among older adults. The effects were small but statistically significant.

Generativity refers to the desire to leave a legacy. Dr. Pillemer describes it as “a development need that older people experience, which helps younger generations to create a better world that they themselves will never experience.”

For example, in Rochester, NY, young workers at the Center for Teen Empowerment worked with older members of a community group, Clarissa Street Legacy, to produce a film and exhibition that documented a vibrant black community that was nearly destroyed by highway construction decades ago.

The teens “came to our homes with cameras and microphones and asked us questions and listened as we described what Clarissa Street meant to us,” said Kathy Sprague-Dexter, 77, who grew up in the neighborhood and witnessed the displacement. “Our thought was: we won't be here for long. We need younger people to be part of this.”

The documentary has been shown at high schools and colleges across the country; the exhibit, after several weeks in a downtown art space, will reopen Feb. 21 at the Rochester Public Library.

“I don't think we could have achieved this without the young people, their ingenuity, their skills and connections,” Ms Sprague-Dexter said. “They carried the burden.”

Attempts to bridge a gap between multiple generations do not always lead to success. Programs come and go. A 2022 Generations United survey found that 40 percent of intergenerational programs that responded had been operating for a decade or more, but nearly half had just started within the past year.

“You can't just put people in the same room and expect something to happen,” says Dr. Shannon Jarrott, a gerontologist and researcher at Ohio State University. The most effective programs provide preparatory training for participants at both ends of the age spectrum, she said, with activities and equipment appropriate for all parties.

They work best with “consistent pairing,” so that the same two people “have the opportunity to continue to build that relationship,” Dr. explained. Jarrott out. More frequent interactions appear to have greater effects.

“What really works is equal status contact,” said Dr. Pillemer. “It is not just a service project, where mainly a young person helps an older person.”

“It wasn't until about 150 years ago that people went to anyone other than the oldest person in a community for advice on finding a mate or what crops to plant in times of drought,” he added. “It's a dangerous experiment to have a society where that doesn't happen.”

At first, Mr. Ahmed viewed the program, which was introduced to him by a sociology professor as a way to earn extra credits, as a kind of favor.

“I signed up expecting to gain nothing for myself,” he said. “The idea of ​​older people getting older is quite depressing. They lose a lot of people in their lives.”

But as the conversations with Mr. Bement unfolded, Mr. Ahmed realized that the program was helping him, too. “Things I read about in the history books, he experienced,” Mr. Ahmed said of Mr. Bement. “It changes the stereotypical, stigmatized image of the elderly. They have stories and experiences and more life than I have had.

The pair are now in their third semester. They met in person once over dinner. “It was amazing,” Mr. Bement recalled. “My life has improved because of this relationship.”

Can they continue next year? “Why not?” said Mr. Ahmed. “I really appreciate this friendship.”

Mr. Bement has two new students to talk to, but said he would always make time for Mr. Ahmed.