AgeVenture Home Page
Front Page Headlines Lifestyle Links Tests Books

MATURE MARKET HEADLINES POSTED 9/11/98

Poll Says Hot Tubs Pull Boomers Together

Hot tubs are the hot item for boomers seeking fun and relaxation with their loved ones, says the National Spa & Pool Institute (NSPI), a non-profit association representing 5,000 spa and pool retailers, manufacturers and builders.

Based on a recent survey by Wirthlin Worldwide, this "tub mania" may have arrived just in time. With two career families and busy schedules, family time is becoming extinct. Here's what the Wirthlin study discovered about the amount of time spent together by American families in face-to-face activities. "The Hot Tub is fast becoming the kitchen table of the 90s; moms, dads and kids alike are soaking together after a long, hard day. It's instant relaxation," says Dirk Caudell, chairman of NSPI's Hot Tub Council. "Homeowners between the ages of 35 and 54 are looking to spend time together and be with their families, and they're flocking to hot tub dealerships across the country to take a test soak."

"What couples and families find is that the hot tub quickly quiets nerves and helps one re-focus almost immediately after a long hectic day, making way for quiet conversation," says Sharyn Wolf, CSW, author of How to Stay Lovers for Life (Plume, 1998). Sharyn is a licensed therapist and NSPI spokesperson. "What better way to enhance a relationship than with a built-in 'marriage counselor' with bubbles?"

"From the moment your body becomes immersed in a warm hot tub, it begins to experience mild changes that make you feel better," says Rebecca Robeldo, Editor, Pool & Spa News. "Medical experts say that, over time, the warm temperature of the hot tub brings about changes in your circulatory system. After a few minutes, the blood vessels dilate, lessening blood pressure: the muscles relax; pain is temporarily relieved; the body cleans itself (through perspiration); healing is promoted; and insomnia is lessened."
The NSPI offers these suggestions on how to use a hot tub to reduce stress. If it sounds like a hot tub may be in your future, be sure to check out the NSPI's consumer tips before you "take the plung". More information is available by calling NSPI toll-free: 1-877-LUV-A-TUB.
See related article in the AgeVenture archives.
"Home Fitness Trend Spawns Consumer Tips "
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP

Faith Is Tie That Binds Elders to Grandkids

Grandparents with strong ties to organized religion develop and maintain stronger relationships with their grandchildren than do grandparents with few or no religious affiliations, reports University of North Carolina spokesman, David Williamson. This new finding resulted from research conducted by faculty at Pennsylvania State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The study defined "religiousness" in terms of the number of times elder research subjects attended church, led services, taught Sunday school, attended religion classes, prayed and listened to religious broadcasts. "Our data don’t tell us what it is about religious observance that motivates grandparents to be involved with their grandchildren," said Dr. Valarie King, assistant professor of sociology at Penn State.

"They do indicate, however, that religious grandparents are in general more involved with all types of family and social ties, and this may be one explanation for their greater involvement with their grandchildren." King presented the findings, along with her co-author Dr. Glen H. Elder Jr. at the American Sociological Association annual meeting in August. Elder holds the Howard W. Odom professorship of sociology at UNC, Chapel Hill.

The new study was the first to examine in detail possible links between religious observance and grandparent involvement with young children, the researchers said. Earlier studies have shown regular churchgoers enjoy better health and greater happiness than people who don’t attend church. Earlier work also has demonstrated that religious parents and their children maintain better relationships than others. "Most children today grow up surrounded by contact with active grandparents, but not all grandparents are actively involved," King said.

"Little is known about what motivates them to become involved in their grandchildren’s lives." For the study, Elder and Dr. Rand D. Conger, professor of sociology and psychology at Iowa State University, collected information in 1994 through interviews with more than 500 white families in rural Iowa. Grandparents ranged in age from 51 to 92. About a fifth of grandchildren came from households headed by a single mother. Most subjects were Protestant, either Lutherans or Methodists. "Involvement" was measured by frequency of contacts, quality of relationships, participation in various activities together, friendship and mentoring, teaching, discussing personal problems, care during illnesses and conflict levels.

"The number of grandparents raising their own grandchildren is growing rapidly, especially in inner cities where girls may be too young to raise children by themselves," Elder said. "In many cases, grandparents provide an important safety net for children and help them make the transition to adulthood by offering support and encouragement." While the study involved only white Midwesterners, the researchers said they believed the findings would be similar for grandparents and grandchildren from other backgrounds.

The study is part of a larger investigation of events shaping the grandparenting role. The National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health and the MacArthur Foundation are among sponsors of the research.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
"Eldercare Trend: "Nearer My God To Thee"
"10% of Grandparents Don't Visit Grandkids ... they raise them full time."
"Elder, Boomer, & GenX Views on God"
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP

GenX Cynicism Rivals That Of Boomers

The rise of a new generation of cynical, bleak and disaffected youth has long been discussed by hip novelists, TV commentators and news magazine editors, but now, after a careful and exhaustive search for evidence of Generation X, two Stanford sociologists are weighing in.

Are the young adults born after the hippie and yuppie generations really more cynical, bleak and disaffected, as popular media claim? If so, why? Eric Rice, 25, and his mentor, David Grusky, 40, decided it was time to take these claims seriously and put them to the test. Sociology, after all, has a long history of studying such phenomena as anomie or alienation, both of which refer to forms of malaise and disaffection that are similar, but not identical to those more recently described by Generation X commentators. If Rice's generation was indeed more down-in-the-mouth than Grusky's, they as sociologists ought to be able to find persuasive evidence.

"It's both surprising and unfortunate that sociology as a discipline has been largely silent on one of the major sociological developments of our time," said Grusky, a professor of sociology. Studies of anomie and alienation were common when public opinion polling was expanding in the '60s and '70s, he said, but had since "fallen out of academic fashion." If sociologists have until now remained silent, a large popular literature nonetheless sprang up in the '90s, based mostly on anecdotal evidence that young adults today are more cynical and disaffected than past generations of young folk.

This literature arose independently of sociological research on matters of anomie, said Rice, a graduate student who was exposed to Generation X movies, books and music as a college undergraduate. The creators of such works, often young adults themselves, typically assume that the generation's pessimism arises from concerns about the social problems they inherited from preceding generations, such as AIDS, high divorce rates, racial strife, homelessness and a shortage of good jobs, Rice said.

In evaluating these claims, Grusky and Rice turned to the national General Social Survey, the only high-quality source of data available that would allow them to directly compare the attitudes of current young adults to those of past generations at a time when they, too, were between 18 and 29 years old. They compared the answers to identical survey questions asked of 18 to 29-year-olds in three time periods since the survey began in 1972. They also compared how older adults in those time periods answered questions addressing cynicism, bleakness about the future and personal unhappiness. Did the popular commentators get it right?

"The popular commentary is indeed on the mark on many counts," Grusky said, based on the results of the comparisons. Just as media accounts of Generation X have suggested, he said, "a great many contemporary young adults are cynical about institutions, bleak about the future, and generally dissatisfied with their own lives." This "X-class" of disaffected youth is also far larger now than it was in prior periods.

Because the increase in disaffection is equally substantial among older age groups, the age-specific causes that have been cited by Generation X commentators no longer seem plausible, Rice said. "Whatever the causes of disaffection, they are not ones that we Generation Xers experience uniquely, although we may very well feel our experience is unique."
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
"Gen Xers Split on Fox Network's South Park"
"Elder, Boomer, & GenX Views on God"
"Millennium Manifests GenX Moral Majority"
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP

Parental Preferences Predict Grandparenthood

If you're still waiting for adult children to settle down and start producing some grandchildren, University of Michigan research suggests you may have only yourself to blame. Young men and women whose mothers always wanted them to get married and have large families tend to start having children sooner than their peers, according to the U-M study.

"Mothers' preferences have a strong impact on the birth of grandchildren," says Jennifer S. Barber, a sociologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research. If it were just up to you, the mothers were asked, what would be the ideal age for your son (or daughter) to get married? Mothers preferred an average marriage age of about 25 for sons, 24 for daughters.

If your son or daughter could have just the number of children you would like, they were also asked, how many would you want him or her to have? The average number of children wished for both sons and daughters was about two. The mothers also were asked how many years of education they would like their sons and daughters to have, and whether they would prefer their daughters-in-law or daughters to work or to stay at home with future grandchildren.

Barber compared the children's stated preferences for themselves, their mothers' preferences for them, and their actual behavior. Although adult children's own preferences were important determinants of when they had their first child, Barber found that the mothers' preferences influenced their behavior regardless of what adult sons and daughters themselves preferred.

She found that daughters whose mothers preferred that they marry at age 20 in fact married and had their first child over seven times faster than young women whose mothers preferred that they marry at age 30. Sons whose mothers preferred that they marry at age 20 in fact married and had their first child more than twice as fast as young men whose mothers preferred that they marry at age 30. Among the young men only, Barber found that those whose mothers preferred family-oriented behavior also had premarital first births sooner than their peers.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
"Grandparenthood Growing on a Grand Scale"
"10% of Grandparents Don't Visit Grandkids ... they raise them full time."
"Boomerang Grandparents"
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP

Group Takes Great Pains To Cure Headaches

The National Headache Foundation (NHF) has announced its list of "10 Tips For Feeling Better in 5 Minutes" in order to help the millions of Americans suffering from headache and head pain. NHF estimates that 45 million Americans experience chronic headaches, 23 million of which fall into the category known as migraine. The tips, says NHF, are drug free, cost effective, and easy to use. Any combination of these techniques is believed to help headache sufferers gain quick relief from headache pain. Founded in 1970, the National Headache Foundation focuses on research and education efforts designed to inform the public about the causes and treatments of headache pain. NHF maintains a website at www.headaches.org
See related article in the AgeVenture archives.
"AGS Launches Pain Management Guidelines"
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP

Device May Help Sightless See Electronically

Perhaps one day, the blind may actually be able to visualize their world, thanks to research being done at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Philip Troyk, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is leading a team of researchers in producing a visual prosthesis device that may offer sight to the sightless.

These implants would be used to electronically stimulate a person’s visual cortex, the part of the brain responsible for processing and analyzing light. To achieve this, Troyk’s team is developing the electronics for the device which measures 1 inch long, 1 inch wide and ¼ inch high. The device is made up of integrated circuits controlling 64 channels, for a total of 256 channels.

The device would sit on a patient’s skull under the skin and wires from the device would be inserted into the brain. A coil of wire worn on the patient’s head would both power and communicate with the device. After converting the original image to electronic form, the data would be transmitted to the visual cortex via the device and the patient would see the image as points of light.

The researchers hope that the plasticity of the brain, over time, will make sense of the information and allow patients to see areas of gray and whole images, not just points of light. We have no real technology obstacles, says Troyk. We only have to bring together technology that is already available.

The IIT team may be able to deliver a useable system in three years and the device may be implanted in patients within five years. The development of the implantable device is funded by a three-year, $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Neuroprosthesis Program, a program which has funded visual prosthesis research for more than 25 years.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
"New Technology Dominates Healthcare's Future"
"Bionic Brain Battery Battles Parkinson's"
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
BACK TO TOP
View More Headlines
AgeVenture Home Page
Front Page Headlines Lifestyle Links Tests Books
AgeVenture News Service, 21946 Pine Trace, Boca Raton, FL 33428 USA
Dr. David Demko, Editor
E-mail:newsdesk@demko.com