How do we define these categories? Well, when we wrestle with
this sort of question in gerontology, we must first distinguish
between chronological definitions of youth and older adult,
psychosocial definitions, and then, for example, economic and
legal definitions as well as emotional, biographical, or
spiritual definitions. Depending on what definitions you’re
working with, “youth” and “older adult” - or “senior”,
“elderly”, etc. - can be pretty fuzzy categories. While “Youth”
could include anyone who sees themselves in this category, it’s
essentially, anyone between say 10 and 20 years of age. In other
words, not infancy and not early childhood but, say, from
puberty to adolescence - the teen years. On the other hand,
while “Older Adult” includes anyone who sees themselves in this
category, it’s essentially, for our purposes, anyone from say
the end of middle age or middle adulthood to late adulthood,
beginning then as “young” as 55 and going right to the end of
the lifecycle. Is There a Gap Between the Tw