Beliefs About Intra- and Intergenerational Communication in Japan, the Philippines, and the United States: Implication for Older Adults' Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

This study focused on a unique comparison of American, Japanese, and Filipino younger and older adults' intra- and intergenerational communication experiences, and their implications for elder subjective well-being. Hypotheses largely supported and cross-cultural differences notwithstanding, younger adults were more likely to report nonaccommodation from, to feel obligated to be polite to, and to avoid older adults than their same-aged peers. Similarly, older adults judged other older adults to be, whilst more accommodating, more nonaccommodating and to require more obligatory respect than younger adults. Both inter- and intragenerational communication experiences were predictive of measures of subjective well-being but, again, with contrastive patterns across cultures. The theoretical relevance of these findings is highlighted.

Keywords:

• Collective Age-Group Esteem
• Communication Accommodation
• Elderly
• Filial Piety
• Intergenerational
• Intragenerational
• Japan
• Life Satisfaction
• Nonaccommodation
• Philippines
• Predicament Model
• Self-Esteem
• Subjective Well-Being

The authors express their gratitude to the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their extensive insightful feedback.

Notes

Scalar items (7-point scale, 1 = “very frequent” to “7 = very infrequent) were included to assess the respondents' frequency of contact with younger and older adults who were not family or like-family. American respondents' contact with older adults (M = 4.53, SD = 2.02) were more frequent than that by Japanese (M = 3.72, SD = 2.07) and Filipino (M = 4.03, SD = 1.99) respondents, who did not differ significantly each other. No significant differences emerged for their contact with younger adults. An age-group effect indicated that younger and older adults reported greater contact with their respective ingroup than outgroup members.

Alphas for the communication factors are available from the first author.

The details of the MANOVA results are available from the first author.

Young Filipino's avoidance ratings were: mean = 3.70 (SD = 1.13) for intragenerational communication, and mean = 4.82 (SD = 1.27) for intergenerational communication. In contrast, young Japanese respondents' ratings of avoidance were mean = 4.01 (SD = 1.25) for intragenerational communication, and mean = 4.52 (SD = 1.37) for intergenerational communication.

The details of the three sets of analyses are available from the first author.

This manuscript was accepted by the previous editor, Professor Jim L. Query.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hiroshi Ota

Hiroshi Ota (PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2001) is an Associate Professor at the Aichi Shukutoku University, Nagoya, Japan.

Howard Giles

Howard Giles (PhD, DSc, University of Bristol, 1972, 1996) is a Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Lilnabeth P. Somera

Lilnabeth P. Somera (PhD, Michigan State University, 2000) is an Associate Professor at the University of Guam.