CHILDREN'S ATTITUDES TOWARD THE ELDERLY AND AGING

This article describes the attitudes of children aged 3 to 11 toward the elderly and what they think about the aging process. It examines the development of the ability to discriminate aging in people as defined in Piaget's theory. Education must reach children long before 6 years of age if it is to modify their perceptions of older people and to create positive images of aging.     

ATTITUDES TOWARD AGING IN ADULT AND ELDERLY PEOPLE WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY

The main goals of the present study were (a) to investigate three components of attitudes (cognitive, affective, and behavioral) toward aging among adult and elderly people with intellectual disability ( N = 32); (b) to investigate whether there are differences, related to age and level of retardation, in conceptualization of aging; and (c) to examine how people with regular development ( N = 30) and those with intellectual disabilities ( N = 30) differ in their attitudes toward aging. Matching between the groups was according to chronological age. Results indicated that conceptualization of old age is influenced by stereotypes. Cognitively, the subjects focused on physical characteristics. Affectively, old age is seen as threatening. Behaviorally, old people are viewed as helpless and useless. Awareness and understanding of aging increase significantly with age. The scores of the adults with normal development in a semantic differential test were significantly higher than those of their counterparts. The latter focus on physical attributes or on bodily and facial expressions. Social identity theory explains these differences. Educational intervention programs are needed to prepare people with intellectual disability for the later stages of life.     

FACULTY ATTITUDES TOWARD INSTITUTIONAL COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES IN U.S. RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES

The present study aims at assessing faculty attitudes toward institutional competitive strategies in U.S. research universities and at exploring some of the correlates of these attitudes.

A stratified random sample of 40 U.S. research university departments, 10 each in physics, sociology, electrical engineering, and education was surveyed by means of a questionnaire.

The major findings of this study suggest that faculty members at research universities express non‐receptive attitudes toward university generic strategies, although, more productive,more satisfied and more committed faculty members are relatively more receptive toward university strategies than less productive, less satisfied and less committed faculty members.

The meaning and the implications of these findings are discussed.     

EDUCATION AND ATTITUDES TOWARD TRAINING AND PROFESSIONALISM AMONG PRACTITIONERS IN THE FIELD OF AGING

This study is based on questionnaire responses of practitioners in agencies in a nine‐county area in Ohio. Data indicate that existing levels of specialized gerontological education are low, but that practitioners tend to be supportive of further training and increased professionalism. Educators should therefore find practitioners receptive to efforts to increase gerontological knowledge and professionalism. There is some contradictory evidence, however, and the question of the desirability of increased professionalism is raised.

This paper is based on data compiled as part of a wider study on aspects of the labor force in the field of aging. The original study was funded by the Ohio Commission on Aging through a grant to the Scripps Foundation Gerontology Center, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

The author thanks Mildred M. Seltzer for her helpful comments.     

ATTITUDES TOWARD AGING AMONG PACIFIC ISLANDER HEALTH STUDENTS IN FIJI

The relation between attitudes to aging and cultural values is a complex one. This study contrasts attitudes to aging among Pacific Islander students with attitudes in a comparable Australian sample. Australian society is represented as ageist, whereas Pacific Islander cultures are reported to be age-inclusive. Attitudes were assessed using the Reactions to Ageing Questionnaire, and data also were collected on levels of intimate contact with older people, said to be related to attitude. A comparison of Australian with Pacific Islander data showed no difference in attitude or degree of intimate contact. Within the Pacific Islander sample indigenous Fijians had significantly more positive attitudes than did Indo-Fijians and significantly more intimate contact. Indo-Fijians, but not indigenous Fijians, also were significantly more negative in attitude than Australian students. Educators aiming to incorporate gerontological knowledge and to challenge ageism in the curriculum should not assume student attitudes are congruent with traditional cultural beliefs. They need to be knowledgeable about and sensitive to differences among various cultural groups within the student population, especially where those students will have the health care of the old in their hands in the future.     

INSTRUCTOR AND STUDENT ATTITUDES TOWARD DISTANCE LEARNING

Eleven community college instructors and the 334 students in their distance learning classes were surveyed. Data showed instructors had conflicting attitudes about distance education. They were willing to teach a distance learning class again, but they rated the quality of the courses as equal or lower quality than other classes taught on campus. Their students, on the other hand, were highly satisfied with these instructors and the courses . But the critical factor in much of traditional classroom instruction, direct interaction with instructors, played no role in determining students' satisfaction in these courses. This difference in the nature of student-teacher interaction in distance learning classes may explain instructors' conflicting attitudes.     

CONTACT QUALITY AND ATTITUDES TOWARD THE ELDERLY

The contact hypothesis (Allport, 1954) states that cooperative contact with individual members of an out-group can lead to a general more positive attitude toward the out-group as a whole. The research reported in this article investigated the validity of the contact hypothesis within the context of interage interactions. Specifically, the study examined the relationship between young adults' contact with older adults and their attitudes toward the elderly in general. Previous research has emphasized that various factors related to contact quality strongly influence the formation of positive attitudes. In accordance with this assertion, we hypothesized that a single factor, participants' self-reported quality of contact with older individuals, would be related to their attitudes toward the elderly as measured by an implicit attitude scale. Participants' self-reported frequency of contact with older adults was expected to have no effect on their attitudes. College-aged participants were given a single questionnaire that assessed (a) the frequency and quality of their contact with elderly men and women and (b) their implicit attitudes toward the elderly. The results confirmed that self-reported favorable quality, but not frequency, of contact was significantly related to more positive attitudes toward the elderly.     

INTERGENERATIONAL DAYCARE AND PRESCHOOLERS' ATTITUDES ABOUT AGING

The evidence that intergenerational contact influences children's attitudes about the elderly or aging, in either a positive or negative manner, is mixed. In an attempt to shed light on this issue, perceptions of the elderly were assessed for 33 3-to 5- year-old children enrolled in either an intergenerational daycare program or a daycare program without an intergenerational curriculum. The Children's Attitudes Toward the Elderly (CATE) and a measure of perceived ability to participate in activities (Activity Scale) were used to examine the influence of an intergenerational daycare program on preschool children's attitudes. Program-related differences in attitudes about aging or the elderly were expected, but, overall, the two groups were very similar. In general, children rated older adults less positively than they did younger adults, and they believed that older adults could participate in fewer activities than children could. Longitudinal studies of intergenerational programs, especially programs with an aging education curriculum, are needed to further illuminate the effects of intergenerational contact on children's attitudes.     

STAFF AND ELDERLY KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES TOWARD ELDERLY SEXUALITY

This study compared staff and elderly knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to sexual expression by elderly persons in a long‐term care setting. Volunteers (N = 194) responded agree or disagree to 159 items. Significant differences were observed between the staff and elderly responses on 36 items. Areas of greatest differences involved knowledge and attitudes about consensual sex and sexual abuse, issues related to family attitudes toward remarriage and sexual expression, and age‐related changes and health problems related to sexuality. Items related to masturbation received the greatest percentage of no response. The staff had significantly higher total scores as compared to the elderly reflecting more knowledge, positive attitudes, and support for more proactive responses toward elderly sexuality. Findings have major implications for staff training in long‐term care settings.     

AGING AND DISABILITY: TOWARD A UNIFYING AGENDA

The aged and the disabled have traditionally been split into two opposing camps by providers of services and themselves. With focus on five cross‐cutting phenomena—their prevalence the ever‐changing nature of their conditions their reactions to both the technicalization and medicalization of their care and the full implications of the home care revolution—for the importance of their finding a common ground is argued. The last section delineates the process by which such a unifying agenda might come to be.     

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ATTITUDES TOWARD HIGHER EDUCATION AND LIFE VALUES

A 49‐item Inventory on Higher Education was developed that assessed attitudes toward higher education. The Inventory was administered to 310 undergraduate and graduate students in Education. Item endorsement values were presented for comparison and interpretation. A factor analysis of the Inventory identified 14 factors representing higher education attitudinal dimensions. Also admin‐instered was a 55‐item Life Values Inventory, which also yielded 14 factors. Factor scores for the two instruments were subjected to canonical analysis. Results revealed three significant canonical correlations that demonstrated interpretively useful relationships between attitudes toward higher education and basic life values. Discussion of results emphasised both the methodological and substantive significance of the findings and the meaning of these findings for an understanding of the possible influence of the institutional environment.     

ATTITUDES TOWARD RETIREMENT AND PRERETIREMENT EDUCATION AMONG NIGERIAN BANK WORKERS

Retirement is viewed as a passage that can result in psychological, physiological, and economic problems among some retirees. Adequate preparation for retirement through preretirement education, as practiced in the Western-European societies, has been found to ease transition into retirement and adjustment in retirement. Preretirement education is a relatively new practice in some organizations in Nigeria; hence, little investigation has been conducted to examine the attitudes of Nigerians toward it. Therefore, this study attempted to investigate the attitudes of Nigerian bankers toward retirement in general and preretirement education in particular. Respondents included senior members (n = 48) and middle-level workers (n = 60). There were more males (79.6%) than females (20.4%). More than half were over 40 years of age. A summary of data based on questionnaire administration reveal that retirement on its own is not as traumatic as generally thought. Respondents looked favorably toward retirement, and identified potential advantages of preretirement education. Therefore, it is recommended that employers consider preretirement education as the rule rather than the exception as currently being practiced in Nigeria.     

COGNITIVE KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES TOWARD THE AGED OF DENTAL AND MEDICAL STUDENTS

The need for the incorporation of training in geriatrics and gerontology into basic medical and dental education has recently been recognized. Studies that have attempted to measure the attitudes of medical and dental students toward the aged have been extremely limited. The present study, part of a larger study of attitudes and knowledge among 700 health workers, examines the attitudes and knowledge of over 283 dental and medical students at different stages in their professional education, using Rosencranz and McNevin's Aging Semantic Differential and Palmore's Short Quiz on Facts on Aging. No significant deterioration or improvement in attitudes toward the aged was found in the course of medical and dental education. Correlational analysis revealed a complex relationship between knowledge and attitude scores.     

TEACHERS' ATTITUDES TOWARD DIFFERENT TYPES OF BULLYING AND VICTIMIZATION IN TURKEY

In the present study, attitudes of elementary school teachers toward different types of bullying (verbal, physical, and relational) were investigated. Six written vignettes describing all types of bullying were given to 405 elementary school teachers (F = 218; M = 187). Results indicated that teachers perceived relational bullying, specifically, social exclusion, less serious than verbal and physical bullying. Unlike previous findings, however, the teachers considered verbal bullying behaviors more serious than physical bullying behaviors and were also more empathetic toward the victim physically bullied and the victim verbally bullied than the victim relationally bullied. Coherent with the findings of empathy, they were also more likely to intervene in verbal and physical bullying behaviors than relational bullying behaviors. Gender of the participant was a significant factor for all variables. The most rated intervention strategy was having a serious talk with the bully, regardless of the type of victimization. Multiple regression analysis illustrated that seriousness and empathy scores both predicted the need for intervention scores significantly in all types of bullying. The findings of this study highlight the importance of increasing teachers’ awareness and knowledge about all types of bullying, their consequences, and intervention skills to lessen bullying behaviors.     

PARTICIPATION IN A COURSE ON AGING: KNOWLEDGE,ATTITUDES, AND ANXIETY ABOUT AGING IN ONESELF AND OTHERS

Knowledge, anxiety, and attitudes about older adults and one's own aging were assessed in 256 college students. The Facts on Aging Quiz (Palmore, 1988), the Knowledge of Aging and the Elderly Quiz (Kline, Scialfa, Stier, & Babbitt, 1990), the Anxiety about Aging Scale (Lasher & Faulkender, 1993) and the Aging Semantic Differential (Rosencranz & McNevin, 1969) were administered at the end of the semester to students enrolled in an upper level psychology course on aging and students enrolled in an introductory psychology course (who had never had a course on aging). Comparisons of those finishing the psychology of aging course and those never having taken a course on aging revealed significant differences in knowledge of aging and the elderly and attitudes toward the average 70-year-old. Interestingly, the two groups of students did not differ in personal anxiety about aging and attitudes about one's own aging. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to attitudinal judgments of oneself versus others and the differential benefits of education for attitudes and anxiety about other old adults versus attitudes and anxiety about one's own aging.     

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS' ATTITUDES TOWARD DIFFERENT SUBJECTS

This study investigated the favorite subject to teach and enjoyment of teaching of 490 elementary school teachers (K–5) from two rural school districts in the southeastern United States. Reading and language arts were consistently ranked among the favorite and most enjoyed subjects to teach, whereas science and writing were consistently ranked among the least favorite and least enjoyed subjects to teach. However, the complexity of teachers' attitudes was evidenced by interactions with grade level and attitude measure that existed with mathematics, writing, and social studies. Further, primary-level teachers, compared to upper elementary teachers, were found to be more subject generalists in terms of their relative enjoyment for teaching all subjects. Implications for teacher preparation and policies related to elementary school teaching assignments are discussed.