Perception Of Life Pace In The City And Countryside Among Older People

Abstract

Life pace in cities is often commented as very busy especially by people from smaller settlements. It is not clear whether this proverbial image, a stereotype, is based on prevalent subjective views in the elderly. The purpose of this study is to examine the occurrence of stereotypes of hectic city and tranquil countryside in older persons. The sample consisted of 131 retired healthy older persons of 60-74 years of age (M=68.47, SD=3.71) with the same place of residence in the capital city of Prague, mid-sized towns or villages of the Czech Republic since their age of 40 years. The participants underwent a structured interview and evaluated life pace on 4-point scale. Data were analyzed with non-parametric methods. Our results suggest that older persons regardless their place of residence consider Prague more hectic compared to towns and countryside. Non-Praguers, especially the ones with lower education, perceive Prague significantly more hectic compared to persons living in the capital itself. Recent visitors to Prague perceive the capital as more hectic than visitors with a further off experience. Our results are in accord with the proverbial stereotypes of the pace of life in different types of settlement. As time pressure and busy environment, hectic “nature” may in long-term affect individual emotional and cognitive development even in late adulthood, these influences and their impacts need to be yet researched more in detail.

Keywords: Elderlyurbanruralhectictranquilperception

Introduction

The aging society brings along interesting challenges in different research fields and psychology is not an exception. There is an age-related decline in certain cognitive functions which has been proved to be influenced by individual characteristics and environmental factors. Consequently, there is a long lasting discussion about the influence of nature vs. nurture factors on the individual development. Even though the impact of the latter factors tends to increase in importance in later life (Edmondson & Scharf, 2015), findings related to them are still scarce.

Recently researchers have approached to examine not only influence of factors such as gender, age or level of education, but also have aimed to include the effect of neighborhood environment and lifestyle on cognitive functioning and decline of cognitive functions, or well-being and health in later life in the picture (Besser, McDonald, Song, Kukull, & Rodriguez, 2017; Cassarino, O’Sullivan, Kenny, & Setti, 2016; Clarke, Weuve, Barnes, Evans, & Mendes de Leon, 2015; Eibich, Krekel, Demuth, & Wagner, 2016; Lee & Waite, 2017; Saenz, Downer, Garcia, & Wong, 2017; Watts, Ferdous, Diaz Moore, & Burns, 2015; Wörn, Ellwardt, Aartsen, & Huisman, 2017; Wu et al., 2017).

Schooler (1984) presented a theory of environmental influences on cognitive functions, which may be applied in the case of busy nature of urban areas that makes city residents learn quicker pace in solving tasks. Conversely, individuals living in calm rural areas who are not exposed to a hectic environment may not be forced to solve tasks at a quick pace, as indicated in the recent pilot study conducted on a sample of Czech older adults (Horáková, Vidovićová, & Štěpánková, 2016). Other studies highlighted the difference between rural and urban dwellers in distinct characteristics such as the approach to time use and travel behavior (Millward & Spinney, 2011), the level of amygdala activity during the examination with a time pressure (Lederbogen et al., 2011), or the tests of global cognition and executive functions (Cassarino et al., 2016). These results are also in congruence with the pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis (Réale et al., 2010), which suggests that species sharing similar environmental conditions develop traits that correspond with the life-history particularities related to these circumstances (cf. Luther & Derryberry, 2012).

Bigger cities are faster, as they, together with their growth experience acceleration of social life and restructuring of their social and built environment (Bettencourt, Lobo, Helbing, Kuhnert, & West, 2007; Bettencourt, Lobo, & West, 2008; Bornstein, 1979). However, as was recently stated (Lee & Waite, 2017), not only objective indicators of the neighborhood (such as crime, access to amenities, built environment) but rather subjective interpretations of surrounding area are important to consider when examining the aging in the context of environmental influences.

There is a traditional proverbial image, a notion, about hectic life pace in the capital city of the Czech Republic, Prague. Though, there is no evidence of the prevalence of the notion in the older population in different areas of the CR. We aim to examine, as a part of currently ongoing project “Impact of settlement size on cognition in older age” (GAČR 17-14829S, acronym COURAGE, realized in The National Institute of Mental Health in Klecany in the Czech Republic), the perception of life pace in three pre-set types of environment.

Research Methods

Findings

Our results reveal significantly different evaluation of life pace in three types of environment regardless the place of residence. Most of our sample, 89.3 % of older adults regardless their place of residence consider life pace in Prague as rather hectic or very hectic (M=3.43; SD=0.70; Me=4; Mo=4). Mid-sized towns are perceived as rather calm or rather hectic (M=2.49; SD=0.68; Me=2; Mo=2) according to 89.3 % of our sample and 96.7 % of participants evaluated countryside as very calm or rather calm (M=1.52; SD=0.59; Me=1; Mo=1).

There is a significant positive relationship between the perception of life pace in towns and Prague (rho=.476; p<.001), which is even tighter in older adults from villages (rho=.517; p<.001). Thus, older adults, especially the ones from rural area, perceive both towns and the capital city of Prague as hectic place, even though there is a large difference in the size and other characteristics between mid-sized towns and the capital. There is no significant association between the perception of life pace neither in Prague and villages (rho= -.093; p=.291) nor towns and villages (rho=.055; p=.536).

Influence of socio-demographic variables on perception of pace of life

We found a significant difference in evaluation of life pace in three types of the environment based on the place of residence (Table 02 ). Persons from Prague perceive life pace in towns and the capital significantly less hectic than ones from mid-sized towns and villages. However, Praguers perceive life pace in countryside less calm compared to villagers, persons living in this type of settlement.

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We also focused on the perception of the environment in congruence with the place of residence. As seen in Figure 01 , older adults living in Prague evaluate the capital as rather calm (35 %) or rather hectic (46 %). Most of older persons from mid-sized towns perceive towns as rather calm (50 %) or rather hectic (48 %). Older persons living in villages evaluate countryside as very calm (68 %) or rather calm (30 %), they perceive the environment in which they live as the calmest one.

According to Non-Praguers, older adults living outside Prague, the capital city is rather hectic (32.4 %) or very hectic (63.8 %). It seems that persons living in Prague do not perceive the life pace of capital as busy as Non-Praguers. ANOVA with Bonferroni correction confirmed that Praguers significantly differ from mid-sized towners (p<.001) and villagers (p<.001) in the perception of Prague, but persons living in villages and mid-sized towns do not evaluate life pace in Prague significantly different (p=.215). The same results were confirmed by posthoc test – Fisher´s Least Significant Difference (LSD).

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In Non-Praguers there was a significant positive association between the year of last visit and evaluation of life pace in Prague (rho=.247; p=.004). This association suggests that the ones visiting Prague more recently evaluate life pace in the capital as busier compared to those with a long ago experience. Though, when comparing respondents whose last visit was before the retirement and the ones with the latest experience after retirement we found no significant difference (U= -0.009; p=.993). We found no significant difference (U= -1.457; p=.145) between older adults with experience less than 5 years ago and more than five years ago neither.

We analyzed the relationship between age and the evaluation of life pace in three different types of environment. There was no significant association between the age and the perception of life pace in Prague (rho= -.149; p=.089), towns (rho= -.088; p=.316) or villages (rho=.081; p=.359).

There was a significant difference in the perception of life pace in Prague between persons with lower and higher education. This statistically significant difference was evident in the whole sample (U=1665.500; p=.041) and Non-Praguers (U=1040.000; p=.023). Lower educated Non-Praguers perceive Prague significantly busier compared to Non-Praguers with higher education (Table 03 ). Though as seen in the table the effect size is rather small. There was not a significant difference between lower and higher educated Praguers (U=67.000, p=.225). We did not find a significant difference between lower and higher educated persons in the evaluation of life pace neither in towns (U=1918.500; p=.482) nor villages (U=1977.00; p=.680).

We did not find a significant difference between men and women (regardless the place of residence) in the evaluation of life pace in Prague (U=1965.000; p=.430), towns (U=2012.500; p=.593) or villages (U=2102.500; p=.939).

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Further, we analyzed the perception of life pace in one’s type of place of residence, and its relations to sociodemographic variables (age, level of education and gender). We found a significant negative association between age and the perception of life pace in the same type of environment as a place of residence only in mid-sized towners (rho= -.292; p=.049), but not in Praguers (rho= -.201; p=.325) nor villagers (rho= .008; p=.95). Thus, with increasing age, older adults living in towns perceive life pace there less busy. In case of the level of education, we did not find a significant difference between lower and higher educated older adults living in Prague (U=67.000; p=.58), mid-sized towns (U=236.000; p=.785) and villages (U=405.500; p=.659). There was not a significant difference between men and women living in Prague (U=66.000; p=.413), mid-sized towns (U=253.500; p=.939) nor villages (U=410.000; p=.654).

Discussion

There is supposed to exist a stereotype of hectic cities and calm rural areas. Therefore we approached, as a part of the ongoing research COURAGE, to examine the occurrence of this proverbial image in older residents of pre-set three types of environment: the capital city of Prague, mid-sized towns, and villages. Our results suggested that most of older adults regardless their place of residence (89 %) do perceive the capital as rather hectic or very hectic, and rural areas are evaluated as rather calm or very calm (97 %).

The image of a hectic city is notable especially in Non-Praguers, who were more extreme in the evaluation of life pace in the capital, 64 % of Non-Praguers compared to 15 % of Praguers evaluated the life pace very hectic. We may presume that Praguers are used to the busy nature of the capital after spending the majority of their lives there. The fact that persons from rural areas are not accustomed to a complex environment with a higher number of stimuli present in towns and cities could cause the extreme evaluation of the life pace in Prague. Based on our findings it is possible to confirm the occurrence of the proverbial image of hectic life pace in cities, and that the stereotype reflects environmental and social differences of settlements. Its occurrence was confirmed in the whole sample regardless the place of residence of participants.

We found a positive relationship between the evaluation of life pace in Prague and the year of the last visit. But to our surprise, we were not able to confirm this finding when splitting the sample into participants with the last visit less or more than five years ago nor into participants with the last visit before and after their retirement. The reason may be only small tightness (rho<.3) of this association though statistically significant. Therefore, this finding needs to be further analyzed.

Whereas we present the first partial data of COURAGE, it is impossible to interpret all findings. The indicated results need to be further analyzed after the whole planned sample of 360 participants is assessed and interpreted in the context of other findings of this project (stress connected with health or individual economic situation, lifestyle before and after retirement, etc.), which primarily aims to examine the individual task-related performance under time pressure concerning the urban and rural environment.

Because of the hectic nature of the cities (according to our results as seen above) it comprises a more complex environment. That offers a higher diversity of stimuli, therefore, requirements to make more decisions and bigger amount of information needs to be taken into account and processed (Schooler, 1984; Wörn et al., 2017). It is possible then to view this type of environment as a source of cognitive stimulation or even a brain training (Cassarino & Setti, 2015) and may potentially promote cognitive reserve (Clarke et al., 2012). Urban areas usually offer a living environment with a greater density of physical, social and institutional resources which may promote protective health behaviors and facilitate mental stimulation (Clarke et al., 2012, 2015; Lee & Waite, 2017). Which is supposed to be beneficial for cognitive functioning especially in late adulthood and seems to be in accord with the hypothesis “use it or lose it” (Salthouse, 2006). Moreover, it has been suggested that residential environment of older adults, because of its long term exposure, may be a mediator of the influence of exposure to nature on attentional skills (Setti, Cassarino, & Tuohy, 2017).

Despite the fact that urban areas bring along a cognitive stimulation, for an older person, it could be too demanding to react in a high variety of situations and keep up with this quick life pace. Perceptional overload, long term exposure to an environment, which is busy and interpreted as stressful and dangerous, may result in poorer cognitive outcomes or even social isolation (Cacioppo & Hawkley, 2009; Caparos et al., 2012; Clarke et al., 2012; Linnell, Caparos, de Fockert, & Davidoff, 2013). Not only overload but also lack of environmental stimulation could be detrimental for cognitive functions in older adults (Schooler, 1984; Wu et al., 2017). The environmental complexity is a key factor for an optimal stimulation (Cassarino & Setti, 2016), while the optimum still needs to be established.

So far, there is a scarce and varying evidence about the impact and contribution of environmental factors on the cognitive functioning in later life. Though there is now some evidence that residents from urban areas are somewhat advantaged regarding cognitive functioning compared to the ones living in rural areas. This finding was indicated not only in countries where there is a “…historical educational disadvantage in rural areas…”, such as Mexico (Saenz et al., 2017, p. 1), but also in countries where the differences in the level of education between rural and urban areas are not so large (e.g. Ireland, Germany) (Cassarino et al., 2016; Lederbogen et al., 2011).

In addition to that, a pilot study conducted in the Czech Republic brought results indicating the difference between older residents of the capital city and living outside the capital in tests of executive functions (Horáková et al., 2016), which is in congruence with the above described. Environmental influence including life pace on cognitive functioning and development is worthy and needed to be yet researched more in detail.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grant “Impact of settlement size on cognition in older age” (grant number GACR 17-14829S) from The Czech Science Foundation (the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, GA CR).

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