Social Processes and Development

Adulthood and Aging: Social Processes and Development

Shar D. Baldwin

February 18, 2012

PSY/201

Cathy Dunaway

Social Processes and Development

Since the late 1960s there has been marked progress in the health and life expectancy of Americans. In 1900, the typical newborn in the United States had a life expectancy of 47 years. By contrast, the average newborn in the United States today can expect to live about 75 years. In part because of this increase in longevity, the US. population in the future will have a higher percentage of older people than ever before-a demographic change popularly referred to as “the graying of America.” Because life expectancy has increased so dramatically, most people today can expect to live at least ten years beyond retirement age. The fastest growing proportion of the aging population is the oldest old (those 80 and older). At the same time, there have been dramatic changes in the structure of U.S. families. Today’s families are strikingly diverse. Only 6% of Americans live in two parent, single-earner, and two-child families. In addition, the birthrate steadily decreased over the course of the twentieth century, which, along with the increase in life expectancy, brought about the changes in American families. Where family structure was once a “pyramid” with very few elders at the top and many younger individuals at the bottom, it has become a “beanpole” structure, with more generations represented in one family, and roughly equivalent numbers of individuals in each generation. The prevalence of two-earner families and the beanpole family structure suggests that grandparents can play a more active role in the lives of their grandchildren. In the same historical period, the American economy has undergone significant changes. In the second half of the twentieth century the economic base in the United States shifted away from industry and manufacturing toward a more service-based...