Stereotyped Views of Older Adults in Children from the People's Republic of China and from the United States

ABSTRACT

Children from the People's Republic of China and from the United States were asked to judge younger and older adults. Children's impression and memory for these adults was examined, along with their ability to use information presented about the adults to judge them. How stable children thought traits were about an adult as that adult ages, and how well children recalled information that was consistent or inconsistent with age stereotypes, was also examined. Additionally, the relationship between children's experiences with older adults, and their views of older adults, was assessed. Although 10-year-old American children were more negative about older adults than other children, 6-and 10-year-old children in both the People's Republic of China and the United States expressed negative views of older adults. However, these negative views, or age stereotypes, were more readily found when the task required a comparison between younger and older adults, even when that comparison was for the same person as a younger and older person. Although children were more positive in their views of the adults following the presentation of positive information, children did not necessarily see these characteristics as being stable, especially if they ran counter to stereotype. This was particularly true for the 6-year-old children. These results are discussed in terms of the formation and counter-formation of age stereotypes in children.

Key Words:

• Age stereotypes
• stereotype formation
• cross-cultural views of older adults