Department of Psychology, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah, USA.
Clinical Psychology Department, William James College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Gerontologist. 2022 Sep 7;62(8):1217-1225. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnac044.
The ongoing workforce shortage in geropsychology requires continued efforts to understand the factors that influence whether or not students choose to enter this field. The current study builds on prior research by replicating the Working with Older Adults Scale (WOAS) model. Further, the scale was expanded to add professional attitudes, adultist concerns, and number of known professionals in the field of aging.
Graduate students in clinical psychology (n = 117) completed the WOAS and new items as part of a larger survey of graduate students in an American Psychological Association-accredited doctoral program. Structural equation modeling was used to first replicate the existing WOAS model and then expanded to include new antecedents in a second model.
Results were largely similar to past research validating the WOAS, with the exception that Perceived Behavioral Control was not a significant predictor of Intention in this population. In the expanded model, new items improved the overall model fit and exhibited significant indirect paths to predict intention to work with older adults.
These findings further validate use of the WOAS and expand scholarly understanding of the factors influencing the choice of a career in aging. Individuals positioned to encourage careers in aging may wish to address adultist concerns, explore attitudes about such careers, challenge unhelpful assumptions, and provide greater exposure and access to mentors in the field as part of recruitment efforts.
老年心理学领域持续存在的劳动力短缺问题要求我们继续努力了解影响学生是否选择进入该领域的因素。本研究通过复制“与老年人合作量表”（WOAS）模型，进一步拓展了先前的研究。此外，该量表还扩展了专业态度、成人主义关注以及老龄化领域已知专业人士的数量等内容。
临床心理学专业的研究生（n=117）完成了 WOAS 和新的项目，这些内容是作为美国心理协会认可的博士项目研究生的一项更大规模调查的一部分。结构方程模型首先用于复制现有的 WOAS 模型，然后扩展到包含新的先行因素的第二个模型中。
结果与过去验证 WOAS 的研究基本一致，只是在这个群体中，感知行为控制不是意向的显著预测因素。在扩展模型中，新项目提高了整体模型拟合度，并表现出对预测与老年人合作意向的显著间接路径。
这些发现进一步验证了 WOAS 的使用，并扩展了对影响选择老龄化职业因素的学术理解。有能力鼓励从事老龄化职业的个人可能希望解决成人主义问题，探讨对这类职业的态度，挑战无益的假设，并在招募工作中提供更多的领域导师接触和访问机会。
