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Abstract
The Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) by CitationRosencranz and McNevin (1969) is the most widely used instrument in gerontological and geriatric education to assess the stereotypic attitudes young people have toward older adults. CitationPolizzi (2003) updated the ASD with current adjectives and reduced the instrument to a single latent factor, attitude. We examine the validity of this major instrument and describe the strengths and shortcomings. The instrument was administered to 199 medical students that participated in a national pilot project, Vital Visionaries, funded by National Institute on Aging. Confirmatory factory analysis using structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. Qualitative data captured stereotypic attitudes young people have toward older adults. SEM indexes suggest that a one-factor structure has poor fit. Qualitative analyses suggest medical students hold multiple dimensions of stereotypic attitudes toward older adults. We suggest that the latent factor, attitude, can be assessed with fewer observed items, thereby creating room for the additional latent factors. The resulting instrument could be just as short, but offer a more comprehensive assessment of young people's stereotypic attitudes toward older adults.
The research reported in this article was partly supported by the National Institute on Aging/National Institutes of Health. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Oasis in sponsoring the program, Vital Visionaries. We also thank Dr. David Gillespie at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University-St. Louis, for his assistance in reviewing this article and Jason Echols, also at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, for his help with the content analysis.