University Report: LC664 Ageing Through the Life Course Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive overview of ageing through the life course, examining the physiological and social changes across different life stages, with a specific focus on late adulthood (60-100 years). It explores the importance of each stage, from infancy to late adulthood, in shaping the concept of ageing well. The report delves into key issues impacting ageing, including health inequality, cultural influences, and lifestyle choices, highlighting their effects on the ageing process. Furthermore, it analyzes the politicisation of ageing, considering the role of global, national, and local policies in providing context and support for older adults. Finally, the report emphasizes the significance of social construction, community, and social capital in shaping the experiences of ageing and ageing well, offering a holistic understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with this life stage.

LC664 Ageing Through the Life
Course
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CONTENTS
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
Importance of different stages of life course to concept of ageing well......................................3
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................5
Issue that impact over ageing well, including inequality, culture and lifestyle choice...............5
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................6
Politicisation of ageing through life course and role of global, national and local policy in
providing context of ageing.........................................................................................................6
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................7
Significance of social construction of community and social capital to experience of ageing
and ageing well through life course.............................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
Ageing is defined as the physiological changes that take place within a particular organism
which leads to the senescence or a decline with the biological function. The ageing at life course
consist of several stages in a life cycle throughout which a person move in their whole journey
from birth to death (Wheaton, 2017). The current report is focuses over the ageing process
through the life course which focuses over its importance, issues of aging, politicisation along
with describing about the significance of the social construction and social capital in ageing
experience. in order to explain it effectively within current report the age group of 60 to 100
years is consider which is denoted as late adulthood.
LO 1
Importance of different stages of life course to concept of ageing well
The life course is defined as that period in a life of a individual which consider from the
birth to death which includes the sequence of predictable life event like the physical maturation.
In this aging is a life long process and entails the maturation as well as changes with in the
physical, social and psychological level. Ageing can be defined as the time related deterioration
of psychological functions which remain necessary for the fertility and survival.
Each phase within life of an individual come with different set of responsibilities and
expectation that are also depend over culture and lifestyle which varies person to person. Each
life course stage holds their own importance where the life moves from several of dependence
and independence level (Ben-Shlomo, Cooper and Kuh, 2016). As at birth stage the new born
depend over caregiver for everything, as babies they become toddlers and then teenagers where
they assert their independence. Then they enter to adulthood and get responsible for all their
lives. The stages involve in the life course as well as its importance in context of ageing is
explained below:
Infant: This is the earliest part of childhood which is usually starts from the birth of a
baby who totally depend over the caregiver usually the parents for their basic need also such as
food. Infants usually learn to have trust over others based upon the kind of care they get as per
their need. This stage of life involves several kind of psychological changes where the trunk of
body grows faster then the legs and arm, organ system begins to grow and also the new synapses
form up a link with brain neurones. Due to all this stage is essential as it help in forming up a
better life and future of a individual.
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Toddler years: This ageing stage is consider as the ned of early childhood where a child
started exploring the world which is around them and they started learning more about the
environment and their place within it (Katz, 2018). This stage of ageing is essential as their
physical body started taking a proportionate appearance their bones started gaining strength and
they become able to move themselves by their own.
Childhood: This is the stage where a child started understanding things and went to school
for their mental development. At this ageing cycle the physiological as well as emotional
changes take place. While the ageing process in this life course of childhood, the skull as well as
brain started growing near to adult size which means the psychological and emotional changes
occur.
Puberty: This is the onset of puberty which is consider to be the beginning of adolescence
and a bridge between the childhood and young adulthood. As per the medical, the adolescent
stage of life course is divided into two parts the one is between the age group of nine to thirteen
or puberty and the age group from fourteen to eighteen or late adolescence. This is the stage
where the reproductive development of a child take place for the future appearance.
Older adolescence: After the puberty stage the physical growth get slow down where the
girls stop growing taller at the age of sixteen while boys continue to grow till eighteen to twenty.
This stage of ageing is very much crucial as at this phase an individual started seeking for the
independence as being an adolescents they started developing their own identity apart from
family which give a direction to their future.
Adulthood: This stage is considered between the age group of 20-40 years where people
started developing their career, getting married and their family. At this stage individual started
sharing one self more intimately with other person which leads to a long-term relationship and
commitment that lasts for many years of life.
Middle adulthood: The main focus of this stage remains at the contribution toward the
society and next generation. In this stage the adults remain at the height of their career and
raising their children (Katz, 2018). This stage brings up expertise within certain filed and also
support in understanding the problem and finding solution with greater efficiency than ever
before.
Late adulthood: This life course phase continue till death of an individual as it is the last
stage of life cycle. In this stage some people remain independent while other get dependent to
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their children as this age brings up more risk to the issues like cancer, mental health issues,
arthritis, cerebral vascular disease, hypertension etc.
LO 2
Issue that impact over ageing well, including inequality, culture and lifestyle choice
From the biological point of view the ageing is consider as the outcome of impact of the
accumulating a wider variety of cellular damage and molecular damage as the time passes. This
in further leads to decrease with in the mental as well as physical capacity, a growing risk of
disease and ultimately death. These are the changes that are neither consider to be liner or
constant as they are associated with the age of person in years (Hockey and James, 2017). The
ageing process is consider biological process which usually occurs with the changes that take
place within the body of an individual where physical growth is actually get stop and cells
reduce their further development. At the life course phase of late adulthood there are number of
issues that people usually faces which in turn affect their ageing process to run in smooth
manner. But among them all the health issues is a major concern which affect the further ageing
process of an individual. Other than this following are certain areas where the issues related with
ageing are found to be very common,
Health inequality: the diversity seen within the older age is not at random. A larger part is
usually arises from the physical as well as social environment in which people live and impact
over the environment over their health behaviour and opportunities. The relationship that one
have with the environment is mainly form with the characteristics of person such as family,
gender, ethnicity which all leads to inequality in health. A huge proportion of diversity within
older age is seen due to cumulative impact of these health inequality throughout life course.
Culture: The culture seem to plays a major role within making a ageing process well or
inappropriate. As majority of culture do not accept ageing which in turn have a huge impact over
ageing appropriately. As wester culture usually do whatever possible for them to prevent aging
like wrinkle creams, supplements, hair dyes and even plastic surgery which in turn create more
health issues to them (Madero-Cabib and Kaeser, 2016). Other than this the signs of ageing make
people uncomfortable and also a feeling of shame which not let them live properly that further
affect their health condition physically and mentally.
Lifestyle: The type of lifestyle a person follow also affect the ageing process of an
individual. The healthy lifestyle is consider to be a crucial factor live better within the late
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adulthood as it help in keeping people away from any kind of health issues that are usually found
in old age and that make people dependent over other to take care of them. The inappropriate
lifestyle habits like smoking, stress, imbalance diet and over exercising etc. directly affect the
physical as well as mental health which in turn further influence the overall process of ageing.
LO 3
Politicisation of ageing through life course and role of global, national and local policy in
providing context of ageing
The ageing society mainly get less attention to the determinants of the later life changes
within the political behaviour. As due to the general decrease within the physical as well as
mental capability of people the progressive loss of the social role and older people get become
more disempowered. This is so because after a certain age the people are get retired from their
job role which in turn make some of them disable to further earn and also make them
disqualified from performing any kind of productive work. This in turn affect their living as well
as further ageing process in late adulthood. With this the politicisation is mainly defined as the
process where a person adopts some set of skills, knowledge and behaviour which usually get
transmitted from the politicising institutions such as schools, family and media (Hepburn and
Sintos Coloma, 2019). In order to make people aware about the way they can get their rights
within the society. The political activity of the older people are usually found to get
conceptualise into two main processes such as disengagement and continuation. In this the
disengagement is a stage where people usually withdraw themselves from the political activity as
it requires more energy, resources which is not possible with their age. On other side the
continuation is one which is consider to be a sociological concept which tend to work over
determining the behaviour of older people over political sphere. Within the continuation stage
people usually get involve within the politicisation process who remain a part of political
activities from their young age. This in turn encourage them to protest against anything which is
wrong and not ethically performed with the people of old age group. This in turn help in creating
awareness among people to continue with the things that they actually want in their life such as
empowering them again even after crossing up the retirement age. Hence the politicisation help
in improving the rights of the later adulthood people for active adult or a better ageing
throughout their life course.
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Despite of this the policies formulated the government or other legislator institution
toward the ageing population is also very much essential for a better context of ageing. This is so
because it help in providing a better care ad support to the later adulthood age group people who
usually found inequality in term of their care and living. As there are number of issues that the
old age people usually phases such as chronical health issue, cognitive disorder, mental and
physical injury, oral health, substance abuse etc. These kind of issues usually get increases with
the increasing age of an individual when they move into the later adulthood age (Adams, Morgan
and Watson, 2018). Due to all these they have to face many of issues like inappropriate health
care, inequality, inappropriate behaviour by the carer, neglect from the family and many more.
So in order to deal with this and providing a better care as well as better ageing the local and
national policies plays a significant role by providing a legislator support for being treated well
and getting equal and respectful access to better care. Other than this the global policy also help
in directing the standards and policies that are being formulated and manged by the national as
well as local bodies. The global policies are usually formulated by WHO in favour of ageing
population who found negative behaviour, inequality and neglect by their family, community
care centres and nursing homes. In order to ensure that each one get equality and better treatment
along with reduction in poverty by keeping them empower, reducing hunger and at the same time
improving the follow up of those people whose health care need are not get satisfied properly
(Link and et. al., 2017). Hence, it can be said that the policies formulated at the local, national
and global level for the ageing people lays a significant role in providing a better environment to
improve the overall ageing process of well being of each individual.
LO 4
Significance of social construction of community and social capital to experience of ageing and
ageing well through life course
The aging itself is consider as the biological process which depend over the age and it is
not related with any of the external factor but its name is socially constructed as young or old.
The ageing is perceived differently throughout the world which demonstrate about the social
construction (Wolfson, 2016). As when it is seen within the Japanese culture the ageing people
lives with their children who are expected to take care of their aging parents. The Japanese
celebration of old age can be further identified through the existence of Respect for the Aged
Day which is consider as national holiday to celebrate elderly citizens. On the other hand the
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western societies usually put more value over the young generation as many of the people take
extreme measures over make their appearance to be more young. The desire to remain young
always rather the one’s biological year is frequently impetus for the cosmetic surgeries. This in
turn leads to increase in to the negative and hate behaviour of people toward aging (Sebert and
et. al., 2019). So it is very much essential to have a positive social construction toward the ageing
process of an individual so people consider it to be in more effective manner and consider it as a
biological process instead of hating it to be a part of any kind of shame as it affect the process of
ageing well.
On the other side the social capital is consider to be an essential part for making the ageing
process well. It is consider to be a crucial social determinant for the well being of the old age
population throughout the countries as well as culture. The people who are having a high social
capital is tend to have well being and maintain a better living. The social capital means the
number of people or positive relationship with which a people is surrounded. So, when the
people of old age when surrounded with the good set of people with whom they feel trustful and
feels good then they likely to have less mental health related issues such as depression, stress etc.
which in turn somewhere reduce there physical health issues and help in getting a better and
healthy lifestyle. Hence it can be said that the social construction of the community plays a
significant role within the experience of ageing by creating its image within the mind of people
and with the help of that factor people get treated in a manner (Labbé and et. al., 2020). On the
other side the social capital is also consider to be crucial as better social network support in
providing a better living to the people at different age group and also help them in getting a
better care and support which in turn further support in improving the living being of people at
their late adulthood.
CONCLUSION
From the above performed investigation it can be summarised that the ageing is a biological
process that moves along with the changes within the internal as well as external structure of
body. The ageing process consist of several stages throughout the life course each one get
different changes to the living of an individual. But apart from this the late adulthood is a age
where people found several issues that are related with the lifestyle they follows, health
condition, inequality, culture etc. But there are certain local, national and international policies
which support in this regard by ensuring that the right of people at old age group must be
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maintained properly. Apart from this it has bene found that the social construction as well as
social capital also plays a significant role throughout life course of ageing by changing the
perception of people toward aging process.
RECOMMENDATION
From the research performed over the issues found to the late adulthood age group the
following recommendation can be consider,
 It is essential for the social workers and government try to organise several awareness
program in order to encourage changing the opinion of people toward old age group from
being it a social insecurity to a biological process. This in turn help in improving the
behaviour and care that are provided to the people of old age group i.e. above the age of
60.
 The empowerment practices must also be encourage among the people after their
retirement which in turn help in keeping the people happy who love working which in
turn further improve their livings and also make them mentally fit by providing them
opportunity to perform work which they likely to do.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Adams, V.J., Morgan, D.M. and Watson, P., 2018. Healthy ageing and the science of longevity
in dogs. Part II: a life course perspective. Companion Animal, 23(9), pp.514-522.
Ben-Shlomo, Y., Cooper, R. and Kuh, D., 2016. The last two decades of life course
epidemiology, and its relevance for research on ageing. International journal of
epidemiology, 45(4), pp.973-988.
Hepburn, S. and Sintos Coloma, R., 2019. Ageing transmigrants and the decolonisation of life
course. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 38(1), pp.48-66.
Hockey, J.L. and James, A., 2017. Social Identities Aross Life Course. Macmillan International
Higher Education.
Katz, S., 2018. Book Review/Compte rendu: Age Studies: A Sociological Examination of How
We Age and Are Aged through the Life Course. Canadian Journal on Aging, 37(4),
pp.496-497.
Katz, S., 2018. Susan Pickard. Age Studies: A Sociological Examination of How We Age and
Are Aged through the Life Course. London, ENG: Sage, 2016. Canadian Journal on
Aging/La Revue canadienne du vieillissement, 37(4), pp.496-497.
Labbé, D. and et. al., 2020. Mobility and participation among ageing powered wheelchair users:
using a lifecourse approach. Ageing & Society, 40(3), pp.626-642.
Link, B.G., and et. al., 2017. Disparities in self-rated health across generations and through the
life course. Social Science & Medicine, 174, pp.17-25.
Madero-Cabib, I. and Kaeser, L., 2016. How voluntary is the active ageing life? A life-course
study on the determinants of extending careers. European Journal of Ageing, 13(1),
pp.25-37.
Sebert, S. and et. al., 2019. Cohort Profile: The DynaHEALTH consortium–a European
consortium for a life-course bio-psychosocial model of healthy ageing of glucose
homeostasis. International journal of epidemiology, 48(4), pp.1051-1051k.
Wheaton, B., 2017. Surfing through the life-course: silver surfers’ negotiation of ageing. Annals
of leisure research, 20(1), pp.96-116.
Wolfson, C., 2016. A Life Course Approach to Healthy Ageing.
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