Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

This paper explores the youngest population groups in the city of Guadalajara and their psychological associations on aging. The younger generations’ perspectives will influence the political and social decisions related to older adults and their own aging process, as these groups will be the stakeholders and policy makers in the country. The Mexican population pyramid is being inverted and the new generations will soon have the opportunity of taking part in the decision-making process of the country. By getting to know their views on aging, different programs can be created to optimize the subjective wellbeing of older people. The city of Guadalajara has a population of 1,460,168 inhabitants, and through a simple random sampling, a sample size of 246 participants was determined with a confidence level of 95% by epi info software. Using the Natural Semantic Networks method to obtain the youngest generations’ view on aging, we hope to understand the significance in both groups to understand how they construct the image of the elderly. In accordance with the ethical principles of the American Psychological Association, this investigation is dispensed of informed consent due to the fact that it did not cause harm or damage and the data collection of the participants guarantees anonymity. The results will help inform psychosocial intervention programs that seek the well-being of the elderly.