scholarly journals THE EFFECT OF LANGUAGE ON PREPARATION FOR OLD AGE: EVIDENCE FROM CROSS-CULTURAL SURVEY AND TWITTER DATA

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S976-S976
Author(s):  
Amber Xuqian Chen ◽  
Helene H Fung
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Living Arrangement ◽  
Future Orientation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Time Discounting ◽  
Twitter Data ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Project

Abstract We aimed to further investigate the linguistic-savings hypothesis (Chen, 2013) in the field of aging, which maintains that when languages grammatically divide the future and the present (e.g. English and Czech), speakers tend to behave less future-oriented than those speaking languages that do not mark future tense (e.g. German and Chinese). In the 2018 wave of Aging as Future Project, 2,042 participants from the United States, Germany, Czech Republic, Hong Kong and Taiwan (18-93 year, Mean age= 55.47, 55.61% female) completed online questionnaires. The results supported the hypothesis that people speaking future-less languages tended to perceive the timing of preparation for old age closer to the present in terms of finance, living arrangement, nursing care, and loneliness, they also took action earlier and performed more relevant activities. Furthermore, the association between language and preparation timing was more salient in older adults than younger counterparts. And path analysis revealed that time discounting was a significant predictor (P=0.049) for the future-oriented behavior. Hence, speakers of futureless languages will view the future as temporally closer to the present, causing them to discount the future less and prepare for old age actively. Using LIWC 2017, we then analyzed community-level of future orientation with 80 million Tweets across countries and replicated our principal result through that usage of future-oriented languages partly predicted prevalence of health behaviors. The findings indicate that language not only shape people's own future-oriented outcomes, through decreasing time discounting, but also influence population health as a whole.

Perceptions of the Adult Life Course: A Cross-cultural Analysis

1992 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Ikels ◽  
Jennie Keith ◽  
Jeanette Dickerson-Putman ◽  
Patricia Draper ◽  
Christine Fry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Variables ◽  
Five Factors ◽  
Structural Variables ◽  
The Life Course

ABSTRACTA team of seven anthropologists conducted a coordinated, cross- cultural investigation to examine how structural and cultural variables shape the strategies people employ to assure themselves a secure old age. Central to the investigation was the goal of determining how people in the societies involved (Hong Kong, the United States, Ireland, and Botswana) perceive old age and its place in the adult life course, e.g. whether they view old age as an improvement or a decrement compared with other stages of life and the characteristics on which they base their views. The seven sites were selected to ensure broad representation in terms of the key structural variables of scale, complexity, subsistence pattern, residential mobility, and population structure. Both across and within sites people differed in their willingness and ability to discuss the concept of the life course. We attribute this variation to five factors: (i) characteristics of the social field, (2) education, (3) cultural salience of age categorisation, (4) predictability of life events, and (5) variability in timing of normative social or work roles.

Child Care in Cross-Cultural Perspectives: Implications for the Future Organization of Child Care in the United States

1981 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Marks Greenfield
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Child Care ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Care Organization ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Role Integration ◽  
The Future ◽  
Agrarian Societies

In every society care of children is primarily a female responsibility, yet there is still tremendous cross-cultural variation in the organization of child care. Three characteristics of child care in small-scale traditional agrarian societies are discussed: role integration, use of auxiliary caregivers, and the effects of certain ecological patterns on childrearing. Data concerning each of these points is presented, along with implications for the future organization of child care in our own society. These implications are based on, first, the assumption of adaptive-ness in forms of child care organization that have evolved over periods of time in these relatively stable societies, and, secondly, on the notion that concepts of child care that work in other societies can, in many cases, be adapted to current conditions in the United States.

scholarly journals Relationship Between Future Time Orientation and Item Nonresponse on Subjective Probability Questions: A Cross-Cultural Analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 698-717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunghee Lee ◽  
Mingnan Liu ◽  
Mengyao Hu
Keyword(s):  
Subjective Probability ◽  
Future Orientation ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Time Orientation ◽  
Item Nonresponse ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
The Future

Time orientation is an unconscious yet fundamental cognitive process that provides a framework for organizing personal experiences in temporal categories of past, present, and future, reflecting the relative emphasis given to these categories. Culture lies central to individuals’ time orientation, leading to cultural variations in time orientation. For example, people from future-oriented cultures tend to emphasize the future and store information relevant for the future more than those from present- or past-oriented cultures. For survey questions that ask respondents to report expected probabilities of future events, this may translate into culture-specific question difficulties, manifested through systematically varying “I don’t know” item nonresponse rates. This study drew on the time orientation theory and examined culture-specific nonresponse patterns on subjective probability questions using methodologically comparable population-based surveys from multiple countries. The results supported our hypothesis. Item nonresponse rates on these questions varied significantly in the way that future orientation at the group as well as individual level was associated with lower nonresponse rates. This pattern did not apply to nonprobability questions. Our study also suggested potential nonresponse bias. Examining culture-specific constructs, such as time orientation, as a framework for measurement mechanisms may contribute to improving cross-cultural research.

Gendered differences in emigration and mobility perspectives among European researchers working abroad

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Scheibelhofer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
The Future ◽  
Highly Skilled

This paper focuses on gendered mobilities of highly skilled researchers working abroad. It is based on an empirical qualitative study that explored the mobility aspirations of Austrian scientists who were working in the United States at the time they were interviewed. Supported by a case study, the paper demonstrates how a qualitative research strategy including graphic drawings sketched by the interviewed persons can help us gain a better understanding of the gendered importance of social relations for the future mobility aspirations of scientists working abroad.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document