ABSTRACT
In recent times, growing scholarly interest in the health, socio-economic, psychological, and communicative aspects of aging has occurred, in part from increasing longevity across societies (Giles, 1999). In the second half of the 20th century, 20 years were added to the average life span, and within 30 years a third of the population in the more developed countries will be over age 60. Moreover, it is estimated that, globally, the number of elderly persons will reach that proportion by 2150 (Annan, 1999). Under these circumstances, the concerns and conditions of older individuals come into sharp relief. Indeed, Giles, Williams, and Coupland (1990) have argued that compared to younger generations “not only do the elderly emanate from different historical periods with their own cohorts, values and predispositions (communicative and non-communicative), but they also have different problems (some existential) to which to adjust, somatically and life-historically” (p. 10).
