ATTITUDES ABOUT AGING AND GENDER AMONG YOUNG, MIDDLE AGE, AND OLDER COLLEGE-BASED STUDENTS

Abstract

Using an updated version of the Aging Semantic Differential, 534 younger, middle age, and older participants from a college community rated female and male targets categorized as ages 21–34 and 75–85. Participants also provided views about their own aging. Repeated measures of analysis of variance examined attitudinal differences by age and gender of targets, and by participant age and gender. Female targets were viewed more positively than males by most rater groups. Older targets were viewed more positively by older participants than by other age groups. Older participants had more positive views about their own aging than did participants of younger or middle ages.

An earlier version of this article was presented at the Annual Scientific Meetings of the Gerontological Society of America, November 23–26, 2002, in Boston, MA.

We are grateful to Charity Moore, Ph.D., for assistance with the statistical analysis. We thank Kenneth Polizzi, Ph.D. for useful comments on an earlier version of this article.

Notes

^aDF = Degrees of Freedom

^aSD = Standard Deviation; DF = Degrees of Freedom

^aComparisons of Group 1 and Group 2 that are not shown are not statistically significant at α = .001.

^bDifference of Least Squares Means; positive differences indicate Group 1 rating is less favorable than Group 2 rating; one standard deviation of the statistically significant Group 1–2 differences shown = 6.58.

Not all participants responded to this question: ^a20–34 age group, n = 204; ^b35–59 age group, n = 76; ^c60 and over age group, n = 137.

^dNumber of times the trait was reported is shown in parentheses next to the trait.