Program in Aging Studies

Ben Barton, Coordinator (Student Health Center 211, 83844-3043; phone 208-885-6515)

The Aging Studies Minor connects different knowledge bases across many disciplines. The program offers an interdisciplinary approach that uses the concept of development in later life to examine cultural variables such as class, ethnicity, nationality, gender, and developmental processes and behavioral concerns such as relationship dynamics, health and lifestyle maintenance, work-retirement transitions, and changes in family structures. The courses encourage students to develop critical thinking skills that will empower them as active learners and lead them to a better understanding of what it means to grow old in a new age. Field and applied experiences enable students to demonstrate new knowledge and refine their competence in working with real life community and family problems. Fields such as communication, recreation, criminology, economics, health services, social work, law, psychology, education, and family and consumer studies are increasingly offering special career opportunities to students with a background in aging studies.

Academic units that cooperate to offer this minor include the School of Family and Consumer Sciences, the College of Art and Architecture, and the Departments of Movement SciencesPsychology and Communication, and Sociology and Anthropology.