Patronizing the Old: How Do Younger and Older Adults Respond to Baby Talk in the Nursing Home?
- 1 July 1994
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in International Journal of Aging & Human Development
- Vol. 39 (1), 21-32
- https://doi.org/10.2190/m52c-m2d2-r6c2-3pbm
Abstract
To test the implications of Communication Accommodation Theory for intergenerational talk to dependent older persons, eighty young adults and seventy-one older adults evaluated speakers in a brief taped conversation. Specifically, the study was conducted to determine whether the apparent nurturant quality of the baby talk tone of voice and parental style would compensate for the lack of respect associated with this type of patronizing talk to elders. The talk was either secondary baby talk or a neutral variant addressed to an elderly resident in a nursing home by either a nurse or a volunteer. The caregivers who used baby talk were rated as significantly less respectful and competent than their peers in the neutral condition, but no differences were observed for nurturance of the caregiver. The recipients of baby talk were perceived to be less satisfied with the interaction. These findings were true for both caregiver roles and both respondent age groups.Keywords
This publication has 15 references indexed in Scilit:
- Evaluative perceptions of patronizing speech addressed to elders.Psychology and Aging, 1991
- Talk to Elders: Social Structure, Attitudes and Forms of AddressAgeing and Society, 1991
- Jokes and reassurance are not enough: ways in which nurses relate through conversation with elderly clientsJournal of Advanced Nursing, 1990
- Psycholinguistic and social psychological components of communication by and with the elderlyLanguage & Communication, 1986
- Use of controlling language in the rehabilitation of the elderlyJournal of Advanced Nursing, 1985
- Baby Talk Speech to the ElderlyPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1983
- Secondary baby talk: Judgments by institutionalized elderly and their caregivers.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1983
- Conversation and Social Exchange: Managing Identities in Old AgeHuman Relations, 1981
- The paralanguage of caregiving: Baby talk to the institutionalized aged.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1981
- Aging Labels: The Decline of Control and the Fall of Self‐EsteemJournal of Social Issues, 1980