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.     

LATENCY‐AGED CHILDREN'S VIEWS OF AGING

This study investigated the contents of children's attitudes toward the elderly and compared these attitudes with the children's attitudes toward young people.

The Children's Views on Aging (CVOA) questionnaire was administered to 256 latency‐aged (8‐10 year‐old) children. The children were white and black, male and female, and came from both rural and urban backgrounds.

The children's responses to the CVOA were analyzed quantitatively using chi‐square and t‐tests. The results showed that children had some negative perceptions of the aging process, but positive views of the older person. Comparison of the children's attitudes toward older people and young people showed that the children's attitudes were more negative toward older people in the potency dimension of attitude but more positive toward older people in the evaluative dimension. The findings suggest that children's attitudes toward aging are complex and diverse. Important implications for educational practice are discussed.

This study formed part of Ronald Marks’ doctoral dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh, 1980.     

GERONTOLOGICAL EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS IN NURSING AND SOCIAL WORK: KNOWLEDGE,ATTITUDES, AND PERCEIVED BARRIERS

Most health care and social service providers are routinely required to work with elderly clients and clients’ aging family members. Research suggests that students entering these professions have knowledge deficits and lack positive attitudes toward older people. Few prefer to work with aging clients. Professional curricula are not providing students with adequate training to serve the current needs of this population, much less to meet projected increases in demand for services. To examine this issue, 67 master's students in nursing and social work completed questionnaires assessing (1) knowledge about aging, (2) attitudes toward old people, and (3) perceived barriers to gerontological education. Results confirmed the existence of knowledge deficits among respondents. Attitudes tended to be neutral rather than strongly positive or negative. Knowledge scores were related to attitudes, to respondents’ ages, and to their having lived in households with older relatives. Nursing students identified the greatest barriers in gerontological education as insufficient curriculum time and lack of academic role models. Social work students perceived lower status of work with the elderly and limited experience with healthy older people as the greatest barriers. The two groups agreed that fragmentation of services contributes to inadequate gerontological preparation. Findings suggest a need for didactic and experiential learning opportunities, reinforced by appropriate academic role models, for students in service professions.     

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.     

HEALTHY,HAPPY, AND OLD: CHILDREN LEARN ABOUT THE ELDERLY

This study explored the effectiveness of a curriculum in fostering children's positive attitudes toward the elderly and their own aging. The curriculum was developed around three major goals: (1) increasing children's knowledge of the elderly; (2) enabling children to assess their own aging positively; and (3) decreasing negative stereotyping of the physical and behavioral characteristics of the elderly. A total of 108 children in kindergarten through the sixth grade received the curriculum; 107 children in the same grades served as the control and did not participate in the curriculum. The test. Children's Attitudes Toward the Elderly (CATE) (Jantz, Seefeldt, Galper, & Serock, 1976), was administered on a pre‐post paradigm. Multiple regression analyses were computed to assess the effects of the curriculum on posttest responses on the CATE. The results indicated that the curriculum was effective in fostering positive attitudes toward the elderly as measured by the total score, F (1,209) = 5.28, p <.05; in knowledge of older persons, F (1,209) = 5.41, p < .01; and in changing stereotyped thinking about the elderly. The curriculum, however, did not significantly change children's negative attitudes toward their own aging.     

INTERGENERATIONAL DIALOGUES: A TESTED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN

Children's attitudes about growing old and about the elderly themselves are in large part influenced by negative images projected by the media and through lack of actual experience in interacting with older people. To counter this situation and to provide an opportunity for positive attitude shift, an educational program has been developed for 10‐ and 11‐year‐old students. Growing Up — Growing Older is a developed unit of instruction relying on a package of software including films and printed support materials. A strong experiential component is provided through structured intergenerational dialogues, facilitated by visiting older volunteers.

The program was field tested using both a treatment and control population. Survey methodology was used to determine pre‐ and post‐experience stages of attitude awareness and understanding of the elderly. Although the study population did not demonstrate the level of negative attitude we had anticipated from the literature, post‐experience testing indicated a positive shift. More significant is the demonstrated increase in level of awareness of aging issues and of older persons as a result of the educational experience. Finally, the treatment population increased significantly the percentage of old people they interacted with outside the classroom. This increased familiarity and awareness of the elderly can be expected to continue to produce attitudes based more on fact than on fancy.     

ELDERLY PERSONS’ ATTITUDE TOWARD CHILDREN

Many school systems and other agencies across the nation are implementing or planning to implement programs involving older persons with children. Thus it now seems crucial to examine older person's attitudes toward children. Intergenerational encounters can be positive only if the attitudes of both groups are known and taken into consideration. The instrument, Elderly Persons’ Attitudes Toward Children, was administered to a random sample of persons over age 65 throughout the nation (N = 542). Results indicated that the elderly hold overall positive attitudes toward children; however, their responses reveal the complexities of attitudes. Negative attitudes toward some personality characteristics of children, as well as the belief that stricter methods of discipline should be used, were found. Higher levels of education, more frequent contact with children, and having grandchildren under the age of twelve were related to more positive attitudes toward children. This information should be useful to those involved in planning and implementing intergenerational programs in school and nonschool settings and for the design of training programs for elder volunteers desiring to work with children.     

Measures of Student Attitudes on Aging

The purposes of the study were to (a) identify student attitudes toward older people according to three measures, (b) determine the relationships among the attitudes as shown by these measures, and (c) identify the relationships between age, gender, frequency of communication with older adults, and life experience with older adults. A total of 125 students completed the study at a university in the United States. The attitude measures used were Kogan's Scale for Attitudes toward Old People, a Facts on Aging Quiz (FAQ), and journal entries about beliefs, affects, and experience regarding older people. Results from the three measures were quantified and analyzed for positive and negative attitudes toward older people.     

BROADCAST NEWS AND ELDERLY PEOPLE: ATTITUDES OF LOCAL TELEVISION MANAGERS

The Kogan Attitudes Toward Old People Scale was used to measure local television manager attitudes toward elderly people. Census projections have shown that the elderly population will increase dramatically in the next century. The importance of local television news in the Hues of the elderly makes the study of the attitudes of broadcasters about older people relevant. A national survey of two groups of television managers—general managers and news directors—found that younger news directors had a more positive attitude toward older people, while the older general managers had a less positive attitude.     

Different Cultures but Similar Positive Attitudes: A Comparison between Thai and Swedish Nursing Students' Attitudes toward Older People

The proportion of elderly people in the world's population is growing. Thailand and Sweden have disparate cultural traditions of caring for older people, though both countries are facing a larger population of older people. Sweden and Thailand are involved in several cooperative projects and exchange programs for nursing students in this area, raising the questions of if and how the different cultures of gerontological care influence students’ attitudes in the issue. The aim of the study was to compare Swedish and Thai nursing students’ attitudes towards older people. A convenience sample of 241 Thai nursing students and 299 Swedish nursing students participated in the study. The Kogan's Old People Scale, a 34-item questionnaire, was used in this research. The questionnaire consists of 17 positive (OP+) statements and 17 negative (OP-) statements and uses a Likert scale. Concerning attitudes towards older people, there was no significant difference in Swedish and Thai students’ positive scores in the distribution across the groups. In contrast, these students did differ on negative scores across countries (p = .001). This was understood to be related to age; the Swedish students’ higher age was positively associated with their positive attitudes; as the age increased, the students’ scores were also higher. Attitudes towards older people are not only influenced by cultural values, norms, and social structures, they also have a foundation in gerontological knowledge and experiences. Education addressing cultural awareness of negative ageism should be incorporated into all aspects of education, not just gerontological courses.     

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.     

Study of a multigenerational learning program in Taiwan

The aim of the Multigenerational Learning Program (MLP) is to increase multigenerational interactions through activities, which will help all learners including middle aged to older adults, university students, and children to improve multigenerational understanding, and increase their positive attitudes toward each other. The MLP activities were conducted between February 2012 and June 2014. A total of 196 middle aged to older adults, 10 university students and 163 children participated in multiple sessions. The authors’ survey results revealed that the participating children’s attitude toward the adults and elder generations became somewhat more positive from pre-test to post-test, but not significantly. Interestingly, it was also shown that elder participants’ attitudes toward the children did not change significantly from pre-test to post-test. Furthermore, all participants enjoyed participation in the MLP and demonstrated strong interest in repeating the program.

The Multigenerational Learning Program (MLP) undoubtedly has a role to play in the social context of the Taiwan today. Taiwan has an aging population, as the birth rate has declined and people are living longer in the meanwhile (Hong, Hwang, Liang, & Chang, 2008). Recently, it has been argued that Taiwanese societies hold negative stereotypes and misconceptions about the elderly and the aging process including traits like physical and mental deterioration, depression, irritability, dependence, inactivity, and isolation. Such negative views could lead to age-based discrimination (Hong et al., 2008). Unfortunately, developing positive attitudes toward older adults has become increasingly difficult, given that many children do not have the opportunities they once had for continued contact with the elderly due to changing family structures, increasing in single-parent and two working-parent families, and often, families relocate to communities that offer more job opportunities (Martin, Springate, & Atkinson, 2010).     

Older Characters in Teen Movies from 1980–2006

Although children as young as age three have already begun to manifest negative stereotypes toward older adults, attitudes toward older adults likely crystallize during late childhood and adolescence and become entrenched by the time an individual reaches young adulthood. Studies have shown that young people view older people in general as ineffective, dependent, lonely, poor, angry, overly wrinkled, ugly, dirty, disabled, and less physically active and healthy than younger adults. Because today's children and adolescents have less contact with older people than in past decades, it is likely that some young people get most of their information about older people and aging from the media. This is all the more likely during the teen years, when vulnerable adolescents purposely seek out certain media to form their identity. This content analysis examined the 60 most popular teen movies from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s to determine how older people are portrayed. Older people were greatly underrepresented, according to their numbers in the actual U.S. population, making up only 7% of the total number of characters in teen movies. Older people were marginalized in terms of plot and were likely to be featured only as background characters. Of older characters, 60% were portrayed stereotypically, and only 45% of the older characters were portrayed in a positive manner. Also, 32% of older characters were portrayed in a negative manner, and one-fifth of older characters were portrayed only with negative characteristics. The stereotypes that adolescents today hold toward older people, including the belief that they are bad drivers, are angry most of the time, and are senile, were reflected in older character portrayals in these popular teen films. Given the negative representations of older people that adolescents are exposed to in their childhood and during the teen years, it is no wonder that they express negative attitudes toward older people. After years of exposure to media that negatively depict older adults, adolescents have been cultivated to stereotype older people. This has the potential to influence the quality of their interactions with older people, and also influence the way they come to view the prospect of getting old.     

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE ELDERLY: AN INTERGENERATIONAL EXAMINATION

The relationship between children's attitudes toward older people and older people's perception of children's attitudes toward them were examined using the Attitude Perception Questionnaire. Results were analyzed for 52 fifth‐ and sixth‐grade children and 52 older adults, and comparisons made on the basis of age, sex and amount of intergenerational contact. Older adults perceptions of children's attitudes toward them were more negative than the children's actual attitudes. Implications for persons involved in planning and implementing intergenerational programs are discussed.     

From Loving Grandma to Working with Older Adults: Promoting Positive Attitudes Towards Aging

The steady increase of population aging requires not only more people working within the field of aging but also the creation of new services. However, current students from areas such as medicine, nursing, psychology, and social work frequently have low interest in working with older adults. The low interest relates to this task's lack of challenge, absence of social status, and lower incomes. Different variables explain pervasive negative attitudes and lack of interest to work with older cohorts. Change of direction in this trend involves the inclusion of age related topics in university curriculum as well as promoting direct contact with older adults.     

Undergraduate Students' Perceptions and Behaviors Related to the Aged and to Aging Processes

Aging education is relatively new to the university, and our understanding of the perspectives students bring to aging populations is correspondingly limited. This investigation surveys 546 students at a midsized, Midwestern university to explore students' views toward elders, toward serving elders, and toward the relevance of aging education for various other areas of study. Our results suggest generally favorable attitudes: older students and students with greater contact with aging populations were more positive than their counterparts; gender, GPA, and aging courses taken showed sporadic or no effects on various attitudes. These preliminary findings offer a baseline for future investigations. Our findings suggest that students who have more contact through friendship and volunteer experiences have more positive attitudes toward working with older adults. Additional research is needed to examine if type of gerontological instruction is associated with attitudes toward aging and aging education.     

Endurance of Undergraduate Attitudes Toward Older Adults

This cross-sectional study assessed undergraduate attitudes toward older adults and attitude endurance 3 to 18 months after aging coursework. Survey respondents included 349 students who took an aging elective and 430 comparison students. Aging-elective students indicated more positive attitudes than comparison students. Attitudes did not vary across 3 groups staggered by time elapsed from completing the course until testing (3 to 18 months). 4 variables accounted for the variance in attitudes toward elders at a statistically significant level: majoring in biology, having frequent or occasional contact with unrelated older adults, taking an aging course, and post-course knowledge of aging.     

Assessing positive attitudes toward older and younger adults

Meaningful intergenerational interactions between older and younger adults are rare outside of family relationships. Interventions to increase positive intergenerational interactions are growing, but finding appropriate measures of attitudes toward both younger and older age groups is difficult. Many measures assessing attitudes toward older adults can remind participants of negative stereotypes of aging and are rarely used to assess attitudes toward younger adults. We adapted Pittinsky, Rosenthal, and Montoya’s allophilia measure to assess attitudes toward younger (18–25 years old) and older (over age 65) adults. In the first study, 94 traditional college age and 52 older adults rated older and younger adults. The allophilia measure distinguished between younger and older adults’ attitudes toward each age group. In the second study, we compared the age-related allophilia measures with seven traditional measures of attitudes toward older adults. Forty-seven traditional college age students completed measures. As predicted, correlations between allophilia toward older adults and the traditional semantic differential measures were weak (i.e., r = |0.15|or less), whereas correlations with general attitudes toward older adults were more moderate (r = 0.59 or less). Correlations between allophilia toward younger adults and the traditional measures were primarily non-significant as predicted. The allophilia measure differentiated between the five domains of positive attitudes toward younger and older adults and was not highly correlated with measures of more negative attitudes toward older adults. Results suggest that the allophilia measure can fill a need for a measure of positive attitudes toward older and younger adults.     

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.     

Attitudes Towards the Elderly Among German Adolescents

Many societies are encountering significant changes in their population structure as the number of older people is increasing while children and adolescents become fewer. This study examines pupils' attitudes towards elderly people in Germany. A total of 935 pupils (458 boys, 477 girls) participated in this study. Grade distribution was as follows: 192 (5th grade), 148 (6th grade), 208 (7th grade), 219 (8th grade), and 168 (9th grade). We provide evidence for two underlying latent factors, “prejudice” and “appreciation.” The “prejudice” factor contained prejudices and negative attitudes towards old people, and the “appreciation” factor contained items that were positively related to old people. On average, pupils valued old people. Based on a multivariate general linear model, we found a significant influence of gender, grade, and distance to grandparents. Girls valued old people higher, thus rating them higher on the appreciation scale. However, effect size was comparably low. No differences existed concerning the prejudice scale. Grade effects showed that prejudice increases and appreciation declines with increasing age. Distance to their grandparents significantly influenced the attitudes. Pupils with grandparents in the near vicinity valued old people more than pupils with their grandparents farther away. We suggest implementing intergenerational educational programs in primary school and in 5th and 6th grade in Germany.