Ageism, Priming, and Working with Older Adults Among Undergraduate Exercise Science Students

Abstract

Aims: Many students resist the possibility of working with older adults, however, few prior studies have focused on undergraduate exercise science students. The purpose of this exploratory study was to evaluate interest among exercise science students and explore related factors, namely, ageism and priming.

Methods: A total of 225 exercise science students from across the United States completed the Ambivalent Ageism Scale, Student Perceptions of Working with Older People questionnaire, and open-ended questions.

Results: Descriptive statistics indicated that this population has relatively low levels of ageism and somewhat favorable views of working with older adults. The priming manipulation did not influence perceptions and a significant negative correlation between ageism and perceptions emerged. Follow-up analyses showed that regular contact with older adults and self-reported interest affected ageist beliefs and perceptions.

Conclusions: Encouragingly, exercise science students are not very ageist and are interested in working with older adult patients.

Keywords:

• Benevolent ageism
• elderly
• hostile ageism
• kinesiology
• mere exposure effect