Alienation and Age: A Context-Specific Approach

A context-specific conceptualization of alienation is used to describe age-group differences. Traditionally, alienation has been treated in terms of specific modes (e.g., powerlessness, meaninglessness, normless-ness, social isolation, self-estrangement). This research adds to each of these modes social structural contexts (e.g., polity, economy, education, religion, family) to produce a matrix of context-specific alienation. Age-group differentials on specific components of alienation are examined in a three-generation sample. The postulate that alienation is related to position in the social structure leads to the hypothesis that there is a curvilinear relation between alienation and age, the youth most alienated, the middle-aged least, and the elderly in between. The hypothesis is generally supported.