Elderspeak in Acute Hospitals? The Role of Context, Cognitive and Functional Impairment
- Older adults are often exposed to elderspeak, a specialized speech register linked with negative outcomes. However, previous research has mainly been conducted in nursing homes without considering multiple contextual conditions. Based on a novel contextually-driven framework, we examined elderspeak in an acute general versus geriatric German hospital setting. Individuallevel information such as cognitive impairment (CI) and audio-recorded data from care interactions between 105 older patients (M = 83.2 years; 49% with severe CI) and 34 registered nurses (M = 38.9 years) were assessed. Psycholinguistic analyses were based on manual coding (k = .85 to k = .97) and computer-assisted procedures. First, diminutives (61%), collective pronouns (70%), and tag questions (97%) were detected. Second, patients’ functional impairment emerged as an important factor for elderspeak. Our study suggests that functional impairment may be a more salient trigger of stereotype activation than CI and that elderspeak deserves more attention in acute hospital settings.
Author: | Eva-Luisa SchnabelGND, Hans-Werner Wahl, Christina Streib, Thomas Schmidt |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-100876 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1177/0164027520949090 |
ISSN: | 1552-7573 |
Parent Title (English): | Research on Aging |
Publisher: | Sage Publishing |
Place of publication: | London |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Year of first Publication: | 2020 |
Date of Publication (online): | 2020/09/29 |
Publicationstate: | Zweitveröffentlichung |
Reviewstate: | Peer-Review |
Tag: | acute hospital; age stereotypes; cognitive impairment; contextual framework; elderspeak; functional status |
GND Keyword: | Altenbild; Alter; Geriatrie; Gesprochene Sprache; Pflegeheim; Stereotyp; Älterer Mensch |
Volume: | 2020 |
Issue: | 10.09.2020 |
First Page: | 1 |
Last Page: | 12 |
DDC classes: | 400 Sprache / 420 Englisch |
Open Access?: | ja |
Leibniz-Classification: | Sprache, Linguistik |
Linguistics-Classification: | Gesprächsforschung / Gesprochene Sprache |
Linguistics-Classification: | Psycholinguistik / Kognitive Linguistik |
Program areas: | P2: Mündliche Korpora |
Licence (German): | Urheberrechtlich geschützt |