Resumen

MARTINS, Edna. Establishment and meaning of family to institutionalized elders: a historic-cultural vision on aging. Estud. pesqui. psicol. [online]. 2013, vol.13, n.1, pp. 215-236. ISSN 1808-4281.

Aging has been the subject of many studies since the significant increase in the ratio of elderly people in a worldwide perspective. From the historical-cultural perspective, the research aimed to understand from interviews with four elderly between 75 and 95 years, living in a long-term institution, the meaning given to the aging process itself and the meanings attributed to family in their process of formation and maintenance. The results showed that the significance of the aging process is subject to every life story, regardless of the age or health status of each elderly. In the view of the interviewees, the modern family today has transformed both its structure and  their relationships, yet the family life of the elderly and their contact with their family group appears as a  privileged form of the elders' relationship with the world, in multiple ways of building himself as a member in the social world.

Palabras clave : Family; Elder; Aging; Institutionalization.

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