Making Sense of Patronizing Speech: Examining Elderly Perceptions of Intergenerational Communication

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the interpretation of patronizing speech by the elderly in intergenerational encounters. Extending from past research, this study was conducted to determine whether or not the elderly interpret communication with younger generations as patronizing in regards to their own personal lives, and if so, how these encounters affect them. Ten participants from a current events class at the South Side Neighborhood Center were chosen as participants for this study. Interviews were conducted to find their interpretations of patronizing speech and how it influences their intergenerational relationships. A qualitative approach was used to analyze the data received from the interviews. Thematic analysis was then conducted using Strauss and Corbin’s (1990) Constant Comparative Analysis to provide the foundation for determining themes that arose from the data. Four themes regarding the research questions were uncovered; messages of disrespect, perceptions of being a ‘non-something,” patronization as dependent upon circumstances, and no messages of patronization.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 0 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.