What is disengagement theory?

­Cumming and Henry's disengagement theory offers a bleak portrait of old age. Consider the plight of an older woman we'll call Connie. A retired college professor and widow, Connie enjoys fairly good health, but the loss of her husband and a handful of close friends wears on her mentality. She stays active by playing bridge and volunteering at a soup kitchen. Her two adult children call regularly. Gradually, Connie's arthritis prevents her from being able to cook at the soup kitchen. Then, she falls in the shower and breaks her hip. Afterward, Connie's children arrange for a nurse to come by the house every day to help her. Now, Connie is housebound, and she loses contact with her bridge friends. As her health fails, she only has the energy to visit with family. By the time she dies, Connie's multiple social networks have been whittled down to a few individual relationships.

According to Cumming and Henry's model, the major shift in interaction between seniors and society begins once older people fully recognize the brevity of their remaining life spans. For Connie, that probably happened after she broke her hip and essentially lost her independence. Once that realization sets in, the elderly will remove themselves both consciously and subconsciously from many social networks. Simultaneously, society distances itself from the elderly, and the roles and authority reserved for the older members of a population are passed along to the younger ones.

From Cumming and Henry's sociological perspective, disengagement has theoretical benefits as well. For one thing, it gives the elderly a new role. Connie used to be a wife, mother, professor and community activist. Old age removed her capacity to fulfill those roles and facilitated disengagement. In industrialized nations, the disengagement theory also ensures a viable labor force as older people whose job skills degrade willfully remove themselves from the workplace. Finally, full disengagement then frees a person to die.

If you think this sounds like an overly harsh assessment, you aren't alone. When the disengagement theory circulated through the scholarly community, it wasn't universally embraced. Other scholars commended its thoroughness and clarity. But the claims didn't jive with their observations of elderly people who stayed engaged and active until death. Surely, some reasoned, old age isn't an unavoidable road to isolation.

­Soon after the publication of "Growing Old," sociologists developed other models of aging that contradicted disengagement. Two resulting theories of aging offer a softer outlook on the transition from able adult to dependent senior. Both assert that the elderly remain a viable part of society until death, and that society places value in the role of seniors.

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Today, disengagement theory is largely a relic of a bygone era. Socialization in old age is known to have positive health benefits, more so than social withdrawal. Modernized long-term care facilities are designed and managed to foster interaction and activity among the residents. The link between old age and depression also highlights the importance of the elderly community maintaining contact with other people.

Hearkening back to the Kansas City Study of Adult Life, the first nationwide empirical study conducted on connectedness and old age was conducted from 2005 to 2006 by researchers at the University of Chicago. The recent study found that retirement years and beyond foster closer bonds with certain networks and a pulling away from others. Specifically, old age comes with a smaller social network, closeness to network members and secondary relationships. At the same time, it also brings with it more frequent socialization with neighbors, increased religious participation and volunteering [source: Cornwell, Laumann and Schumm].

From the contemporary sociological perspective, aging is meant to look more like a fluid process than a dramatic, sharp digression. Physical decline is unavoidable, and at some point, it limits what a person can do. But in the optimal circumstances, the sunset years will proceed as a gentle slope, eased by the support of the people and communities around us.