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Abstract
A total of 227 college students from Joliet, Illinois in the USA and Shanghai in the People's Republic of China (PRC) answered open-ended questions on their perception of being old. Topics also included participant's knowledge about older adults' regular activities, social policies and benefits for senior citizens, the happiest and the most fearful things to older adults, and the things about older adults that they were able to understand the best or the least. More negative ideas of aging and older adults were observed in the PRC data than in the USA data. The USA students' responses displayed individualistic characteristics, whereas the PRC students' answers exhibited collectivistic interconnectedness. These findings gave support to the revised modernization theory and fit well into the theoretical framework of individualistic and collectivistic cultures.
This study was supported partially by a summer minigrant issued by the University of St. Francis in 2000.
I thank the following for their help: Mr. Zheng Fan for his work of translating the Chinese version of the questionnaire back into English; Dr. Frank Pascoe and Ms. Sue Trousil for checking the equivalency of the Chinese and English versions of the questionnaire; and Kandice Cardona, Hillary Sinnott, Angela DeCraene, Fallon Kimble, and Lauren Mahalik for their help with data coding.
Notes
Note. Chi-square tests were performed to examine whether the country was associated with the regular activities that the college students believed senior citizens were engaged in. Differences that have reached the significance level of .05 or above are marked: ∗=p < .05; ∗∗=p < .01; ∗∗∗=p < .001; and ∗∗∗∗=p < .0001.
Note. Chi-square tests were performed to examine whether the country was associated with the happiest things that the college students believed senior citizens would like to enjoy in their old age or the most fearful things to older adults. Differences that have reached the significance level of .05 or above are marked: ∗=p < .05; ∗∗=p < .01; ∗∗∗=p < .001; and ∗∗∗∗=p < .0001.
Note. Chi-square tests were performed to examine whether the country was associated with the things that the college students believed to be able to understand the best or the least. Differences that have reached the significance level of .05 or above are marked: ∗=p < .05; ∗∗=p < .01; ∗∗∗=p < .001; and ∗∗∗∗=p < .0001.