Xu Ling, Fields Noelle L, Cassidy Jessica, Daniel Kathryn M, Cipher Daisha J, Troutman Brooke A
School of Social Work, University of Texas at Arlington, 501 W. Mitchell Street, Arlington, TX 76019, USA.
College of Nursing and Health Innovation, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019, USA.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2023 Jun 28;13(7):538. doi: 10.3390/bs13070538.
The detrimental effects of negative attitudes toward aging among younger adults extend to both older and young adults, highlighting the need for attention from academics, applied researchers, and practitioners. To improve college students' attitudes toward aging, an intergenerational reminiscence intervention was conducted. College students, who were randomized to intervention or control groups and matched with older adults, made weekly phone calls to community-dwelling older adults with cognitive impairment for ten weeks. This study investigated whether college students improved their attitudes toward aging after participating in this project. A total of 64 college student participants completed the whole intervention and all data collection. The Fraboni Scale of Ageism was used to measure attitudes toward aging and administered at three time points (pre-, mid-, and post-test). Parametric and nonparametric tests were examined to understand changes over time, and post-hoc analyses were conducted to understand timepoints in which changes occurred. The results showed that both the intervention and control groups evidenced a decrease in the majority of the ageism scale, including statistical improvements in three specific negative items, which were "Seniors are stingy and hoard money", "Seniors live in the past", and "I prefer not to spend time with seniors". Overall, the findings indicate that weekly engagement with older adults is promising in improving attitudes toward aging among college students. Implications for future research on intergenerational contacts to improve attitudes toward aging are discussed.
年轻人对衰老的消极态度所产生的有害影响波及老年人和年轻人，这凸显了学术界、应用研究人员和从业者予以关注的必要性。为改善大学生对衰老的态度，开展了一项代际回忆干预活动。将大学生随机分为干预组和对照组，并与老年人配对，他们每周给患有认知障碍的社区居家老年人打电话，为期十周。本研究调查了大学生参与该项目后对衰老的态度是否有所改善。共有64名大学生参与者完成了整个干预及所有数据收集工作。使用弗拉博尼年龄歧视量表来衡量对衰老的态度，并在三个时间点（前测、中测和后测）进行施测。采用参数检验和非参数检验来了解随时间的变化情况，并进行事后分析以了解发生变化的时间点。结果显示，干预组和对照组在大多数年龄歧视量表项目上均有所下降，包括三个特定负面项目的统计学改善，这三个项目分别是“老年人小气且爱存钱”、“老年人生活在过去”以及“我不想花时间和老年人在一起”。总体而言，研究结果表明，每周与老年人接触对于改善大学生对衰老的态度颇具前景。文中还讨论了代际接触对改善衰老态度的未来研究的启示。
