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What Should We Call Older Adults?

In a New York Times column called “The New Old Age,” author Judith Graham asked: “What language do you think we should use to describe people who have advanced beyond the middle of their lives, and why?” She conducted informal interviews with several experts in the field to see what they had to say, and what she found speaks to the complexity of this issue. Senior citizen, elderly, older adult, older person, and elder are the most common terms used to refer to such a person. And there are arguments for and against using each of these terms. But what do persons who are in the later years of the life course call themselves? What do they want to be called? What might your future older self want to be called? These are important questions to ask in the context of the study of aging, as the focus of our research and practice is “people who have advanced beyond the middle years of their lives.”

Source: Graham (2012).