Intergenerational Programming: A Two-Way Street

By AaronWeintraub, MS

Older adults share knowledge and experiences with children and youth, and, in turn, find that they realize multiple benefits from relationships with members of other generations.

With reason to expect a longer and healthier life span, more older adults are looking for ways to stay active. One exciting way for older adults to stay meaningfully engaged is by participating in intergenerational programming, activities for which older adults and children come together for mutual beneficial interaction. The potential benefits of the intergenerational programming paradigm have been recognized as having global significance. The United Nations’ Second World Assembly on Aging recognized “the need to strengthen solidarity between generations and intergenerational partnerships, keeping in mind the needs of both older and younger ones, and encourage mutually responsive relationships between generations.” Intergenerational programming has been used to strengthen the capacity of communities, families, and individuals in diverse areas such as cultural transmission, HIV prevention, literacy, dementia care, social engagement, emotional development, service learning, and human rights.

How Do Intergenerational Programs Work?
Programs specifically designed to bring together older adults and children can take a variety of forms and target many different outcomes. Planned intergenerational activities range in intensity from one-time visits for a specific purpose, such as community service, to a shared-site program offering concurrent child care and adult day services. Shared-site programs give elders and children frequent and sustained contact that allows relationships to develop.

An example of a shared site intergenerational program is Neighbors Growing Together, a Blacksburg, VA, partnership between the Virginia Tech Adult Day Services and Child Development Center for Learning and Research. The Adult Day Services provides activities, care, and supervision daily to approximately 18 adults aged 65 and older with cognitive and/or physical impairments. The Child Development Center for Learning and Research provides year-round, full-day care for 41 children aged 15 months to 5 years. Elders and children meet for planned activities for 30 minutes three times a week, and the staff encourages spontaneous visits as well.

Typical intergenerational activities include cooking, art, games, and shared reading. Julie Leventhal, a doctoral student in Virginia Tech's human development program and the intergenerational coordinator of Neighbors Growing Together, notes that “intergenerational programming has provided a lot of really great opportunities and experiences for our older adults in our program. The adults are often excited to have a chance to teach the children new skills and talk about fun stories from their pasts. They also tend to form close relationships with the children, get excited when they are paired up with children they know well, and they remember who the children are from year to year. It is wonderful to see the older adults so enthusiastic and excited about being involved in various activities with the children.”

Older adult participants in the Neighbors Growing Together program show greater engagement in activities when children are present. Alison Galway, PhD, director of the Virginia Tech Adult Day services, finds that “intergenerational activities have a positive effect in many ways for our [older] adults at Virginia Tech's Adult Day Services program. Reminiscing about their experiences as parents is a felt experience as they interact with the children. Assuming the role of mentor and educator fosters their sense of purpose in relationship. Faces not only light up when children come in, but the adults enjoy planning activities, writing notes to the neighbors, creating poetry and stories with the children, and being the adult who helps a child draw, read, and play. I am delighted that more new centers are designed to include both children and adults and that activity directors are looking for ways to incorporate meaningful intergenerational activities in their programs.”

Benefits to Older Adults
Involvement in intergenerational activities contributes to the cognitive, physical, and emotional well-being of the older adults who participate in them. The primary mechanism behind the benefits of intergenerational programming is a meaningful reason to staying active—the “use it or lose it” phenomenon. A feeling of being needed and useful is key to healthy self-esteem. Volunteer experience in schools can help maintain everyday memory function in older adults. With increased longevity comes a corresponding risk of physical and cognitive impairments.

Many families have turned to formal care networks, such as adult day services, to supplement care provided in the home. Many formal care settings for older adults struggle to provide meaningful opportunities for social interaction for their participants. Using Montessori education methods, researchers have found that older adults with dementia can still serve as effective mentors and teachers to children in an appropriately structured setting. Researchers Shannon Jarrott, PhD, and Kelly Bruno, MSW, found that older adults with dementia maintain their ability to interact appropriately with children.

Physical limitations as a result of aging limit the quality and frequency of social interaction, raising the risk of social isolation. Intergenerational programming increases opportunities for social interaction, reduces the risk of social isolation, and promotes well-being. Short-term benefits of fitness through sports and exercise programs include a positive impact on hypertension, osteoporosis, general well-being, self-image, self-esteem, psychological mood, muscular strength, endurance, and social integration. The main contribution of the intergenerational paradigm is the ability to meet the developmental needs of older adults and children at the same time with little or no added cost. Researchers have found that positive social interactions increase mong adult day services clients during their interactions with children from a co-located preschool program compared to those without children present.

Older Adults in Service to Children
The one-on-one attention that older adults can provide in an educational setting has been found to have a positive effect on classroom behavior. Students tutored by older adults significantly improved academic performance. In a 2004 study in Educational Gerontology, children at risk for academic failure appeared significantly less anxious, more interested, and participated more during an intergenerational visiting program with older adults. Participating in intergenerational programs with older adults can have a significant impact on children’s attitudes about older adults and their own aging process.

Institutional age segregation can lead to negative stereotypes between old and young people. These misconceptions feed into divisive policies and institutional structures. In studies of social distance, older adults are most often associated with the outgroup status usually ascribed to minorities. The greater the age difference between people, the greater was the perceived social distance. Children as young as the age of 6 express negative attitudes about their own aging process, and adolescents have been found to perceive old age as unpleasant. When old and young people come together in situations that recognize the contributions of each, it can foster positive attitudes and reduce negative stereotypes. In addition to prejudice reduction, intergenerational programming can raise awareness in children and youth about their own aging process. Research has found that participation in intergenerational programming over a regular nine-month school year can have a significant effect on how elementary school children perceive elders. Over an extended period of contact, an intimate relationship can develop that is pleasant for both young and old.

Greater than the Sum of its Parts
In addition to benefits to individual participants, intergenerational programming strengthens families and communities. Designers of initiatives to strengthen communities are discovering the benefit of tapping the often underutilized talents of older adults and children. With forethought and care, the result is a program in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Intergenerational community service programs foster social support, generate community improvements, and help create a sense of cultural cohesion. Researchers and practitioners have noted the positive impact of intergenerational programming on children, youth, and older adults, both anecdotally and empirically.

Another value of mobilizing intergenerational skills and talents lies in launching civic engagement projects that contribute to a community’s economy. The value of volunteer time is currently estimated at $18.77 per hour. When older adults work to engage young people in volunteering and service-learning activities, students, schools, employers, and communities all benefit. Students who volunteer are more likely to stay motivated and connected to their schools and are less likely to engage in risky behaviors or drop out of school. Youth engaged in service projects learn skills required by employers, such as teamwork and collaboration, critical thinking, effective communication, and work ethic.

By encouraging cross-cultural dialogue, community organizers have leveraged the power of intergenerational collaboration to strengthen ties within and between communities. Through artistic expression, young people and elders from the Hispanic, African American, and Jewish communities of Miami have transformed traditions into artistic statements. The use of a community-of-learners approach has also been shown to create conditions for community development by reinforcing the value of indigenous knowledge, rekindling processes of intergenerational teaching and learning, increasing social cohesion, and securing community commitment to create programs of support for young Native American children and families. The ability to express oneself artistically spans the entire life course.

The developmental needs of older adults to pass on a lifetime of accumulated experience and children’s need to socially construct knowledge dovetail in intergenerational programs to create an environment rich with opportunity for cultural transmission, personal growth, and creativity.

—Aaron Weintraub, MS, a doctoral candidate at Virginia Polytechnic Institute who is studying the effects of intergenerational programming on older adults, is a freelance writer in Blacksburg, VA.