Ageism and Gender among Social Work and Criminal Justice Students

Undergraduate sociatl work and criminal justice students completed 1 of 4 vignettes that were identical with the exception of the age and gender of the vignette's subject. In each vignette, the subject interacted with an opposite-sex 24-year-old waiter or waitress. Following each vignette, respondents answered 20 items relating to the age, gender, and perceived sexual behavior of the vignette's subject. The multivariate general linear model was significant (F = 174.572, p = .000) by the Wilk's Lambda Criterion. Tests of between-subjects effects yielded 17 significant item variables that focused on perceptions of the age appropriateness of the behaviors, perceptions of the sexual behaviors of the vignette's characters, perceptions of the affability of the vignette's characters, perceptions of characters being lonely, perceptions regarding the waiter's/waitress' financial gain/incentive, and perceptions of social acceptance for the vignette's main character and his/her affiliation with the younger service person. The findings suggest that male characters were perceived as sexually interested more often than female characters. Older characters are more likely to be perceived as nonsexual, particularly older women. Sexual behaviors in older characters were perceived as a gender transgression. While perceptions may be negative surrounding older males who engage in sexual behaviors, judgments appear harsher for older women.