“In everyday life, people are divided into age categories such as children, youth, adults, and seniors. Each of these groupings has its own schema of appropriate behavior or attributes and is associated with a corresponding set of social relationships with other people and with institutions like the education system, the labor market, and the state. The process of human aging involves passing through a sequence of age-based stages across the life span and socializing into implicit and explicit roles associated with each of these stages. ... To illustrate the complexity of the concept of aging, it is useful to differentiate between different types or meanings of age:
- Biological or physiological age refers to the physical aging of the human body.
- Chronological age represents the amount of time that has passed from the date of birth.
- Psychological age stands for age-related adaption capacities of an individual.
- Social age signifies norms, behavior, and attitudes conceived as appropriate for an age group.”
Click on the terms below to see related keywords.
“In everyday life, people are divided into age categories such as children, youth, adults, and seniors. Each of these groupings has its own schema of appropriate behavior or attributes and is associated with a corresponding set of social relationships with other people and with institutions like the education system, the labor market, and the state. The process of human aging involves passing through a sequence of age-based stages across the life span and socializing into implicit and explicit roles associated with each of these stages…To illustrate the complexity of the concept of aging, it is useful to differentiate between different types or meanings of age: Biological or physiological age refers to the physical aging of the human body. Chronological age represents the amount of time that has passed from the date of birth. Psychological age stands for age-related adaption capacities of an individual. Social age signifies norms, behavior, and attitudes conceived as appropriate for an age group.”
“With benevolent ageism, the perceiver believes that older people need help and are dependent, and that younger people have an obligation to care for older people...In contrast, malignant ageism rests on the belief that older people are worthless, negative, and a burden on society…The vast majority of research on age prejudice has focused on the most common form of ageism: prejudice toward older people, particular those over 74 years of age.”
Childism refers to the prejudice against children as immature beings owned by adults, which “legitimates and rationalizes a broad continuum of acts that are not ‘in the best interests of children,’ including the often violent extreme of child abuse and neglect.
In many social and behavioral sciences databases, you will be able to narrow down your search to specific age groups.
PsycINFO: simply use the “Age Group” filter on the left sidebar that describes specific age groups related to the document’s content
PubMed: Click additional filters to find the “Age” filter and narrow the results to a specific age category.
Encyclopedia of the Life Course and Human Development by 
AcknowledgmentThis guide is inspired by the LibGuides Open Review Discussion Sessions (LORDS) Project and University of Minnesota Libraries' Conducting Research Through an Anti-Racism Lens LibGuide.
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