Gender Attitude Toward The Elderly

4 Pages 1103 Words

The question of attitudes toward elderly individuals and the aging process has become relevant today especially with the baby boom generation approaching. The percentage and number of older adults in our society is steadily increasing and in recent decades, a tendency has developed to view the elderly as a serious handicap. Anyone past fifty is liable to be considered "old," as society family and friends start to show negative attitudes toward them. Although there have been recent studies which examine individuals attitudes toward the aged during different stages of the life-span, most of the research obtained from theses studies reflects the views of younger, adolescent aged adults. Past research purposes that adolescents hold negative views of the elderly and that females are more likely than males to show positive attitudes. The results of a study conducted by (Doka, 1985) investigated the initial attitudes and knowledge of twenty-four adolescents toward the elderly and aging process. Results showed that the participants held negative attitudes toward the aged. Male and Female students believed that the elderly couldn’t drive and had more accidents then younger drivers, they also believed that the aged were miserable, isolated and lonely. This study found that the older the age group was the more negative views were attributed to them.
Sanders, Montgomery, Pittman and Balkwell (1984) conducted a study with a twenty-item semantic differential scale to address the attitudes of college students towards six groups of male and female elderly persons. The age groups were (a) young-old (65-74years), (b) old-old (75-99) and (c) centenarians (100+ years). The results showed that the male and female participants had different ratings only for the older groups. The female students showed more positive attitudes toward the young-old females and males. They also held a slightly more positive attitude toward the centenarian targets compa...