Interpreting the Lack of Future Concerns among the Elderly

Abstract

The lack of concern among the elderly with future crises has been related either to the presence of security or to the avoidance of threat. To explore these conflicting hypotheses a measure of anticipation, planning and preparation in the areas of health, living arrangements and finances (APP) was correlated with measures of demographic characteristics, functional status, past experience, emotional states, futurity, interpersonal relationships and self-in-interaction. For the sample of sixty, all seventy years or over, the security explanation was supported: low APP was associated, for example, with less anxiety, more perception of self as dominant and affiliative in interaction, and more appropriate expectations of responsible others. Concern with future adversities is apparently nonfunctional, reflecting a preoccupation with events that may not occur because of “event uncertainty” and “timing of event uncertainty.”