Faculty Sponsor, if applicable
Dr. Joseph R. Ferrari
Project Abstract
Society often views the college years as a time of great change and instability. Students are often newly independent from their families, physically away from home, and only able to have a limited amount of possessions brought with them. While students are seen as relatively unstable, senior citizens are perceived inversely. With retirement either in effect or closely approaching, older adults are typically more settled down and tend to have more permanent residential locations. Having these social stereotypes in mind, we sought to compare these two groups in order to understand how the separate life stages affected possessions. In this study, we analyzed students and senior citizens with variables such as amount of clutter and self-identification with personal possessions, using the Clutter Quality of Life Scale and Self-Extension Tendency Scale. Participants ages 65 and up were considered senior citizens (based on the national age of retirement) and students were currently enrolled in higher education at the time of data collection.
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Presentation Year
May 2016