In a content analysis, the portrayal of older people in the sixty most popular teen movies from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s was examined, twenty from each decade. For this purpose, older people were defined as those appearing to be 55 years of age or older (note: a rather large group of very different ages and generations), identified based on the presence of one or more of the following characteristics: appearance of retirement, extensive grey hair, wrinkles, extensive loss of hair or balding, cracking voice, use of an aid (cane or wheelchair), parent of a daughter or son who is middle-aged or older, grandchildren or great-grandchildren. Three coding categories were used: young old (55-64), middle old (65-74), old old (75+). Physical characteristics (health status, physical activity, physical portrayal) and personality traits (e.g. forgetful, angry, helpless, lonely, sad, senile) were also coded, so were their portrayals as either consistent or not consistent with positive and negative stereotypes.
While some portrayals were favourable showing older people as active and healthy, mostly, they were marginalised in terms of plot, featured as background characters, and their personalities were based on stereotypes and negative traits. Older people's underrepresentation relative to their actual number in the US-American population was extreme, only 7% of characters in teen movies were old. Almost a third of the movies did not contain any older characters, six of these films were from the 1980s (e.g. Pretty in Pink, Footloose), eight from the 1990s (e.g. Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You), five from the 2000s (e.g. Friday Night lights, Snow Day). In line with these findings, the movies with the highest number of older characters were recent: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire contained seven older characters, The Princess Diaries contained six. Apart from that, no statistically significant differences were found between the decades suggesting that the representation of older characters has remained relatively consistent in teen films over time (at least the time examined).
The primary character role fulfilled by an older character was that of worker (n=27.30%), followed by grandparent (n=18.20%), and boss (n=18.20%). Only 13% of older characters were coded as friends (e.g. Doc from Back to the Future). Grandparents were mainly featured in minor or incidental roles, only two of the 18 grandparents were featured in major roles.
Those who had either major or minor roles were significantly more likely to have teeth (...), to be portrayed as intelligent (...), loving (...), or eccentric (...), and to exhibit the Golden Ager (...), John Wayne Conservative (...), or Perfect Grandparent (...) stereotype. Major and minor characters were significantly more likely than incidental characters to be portrayed in an overall positive manner, while incidental characters were slightly more likely to be portrayed as neutral or negative (...).
The dominant personality trait of older characters (n=32, 35%) found was "angry/grupy/stern", the second-most (n=23) was "friendly" (25%). Men were significantly more often shown with grey hair than women, women - on the other hand - were significantly more likely to be shown as hunched over.
Positive and negative attitudes to older people might crystallise during late childhood and adolescence, a time characterised by young people seeking out "specific forms of media to actively acquire the norms and beliefs of the culture in which they live", by a process of formulating one's identity, and heavy media consumption.
The stereotypes that adolescents today hold toward older people were reflected in older character portrayals in these popular teen films. Given the negative representations of older people that adolescents are exposed to in their teen years, it is no wonder that they express negative attitudes toward older people. After years of exposure to media that negatively depict older adults, adolescents may have been cultivated to stereotype older people. This has the potential to influence the quality of their interactions with older people, and also influence the way they come to view the prospect of getting old.
Since, at least in "nuclear family cultures", children and teenagers have less intergenerational contact with older people than in the past and at the same time the media plays a more crucial role, it is likely that the latter turns into a socialising agent shaping them and the source they get most of their information about older people from. Adolescents with heavy TV consumption might get the idea that older people are vanishing from the population since they are almost non-existent in movies (Magoffin, 2007).
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- Magoffin, D. L. (2007). Stereotyped Seniors: The Portrayal of Older Characters in Teen Movies from 1980-2006. Brigham Young University: Theses and Dissertations, 977, link
- photographs of teenagers by Joseph Szabo via and via
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