Abstract
The steady increase of population aging requires not only more people working within the field of aging but also the creation of new services. However, current students from areas such as medicine, nursing, psychology, and social work frequently have low interest in working with older adults. The low interest relates to this task's lack of challenge, absence of social status, and lower incomes. Different variables explain pervasive negative attitudes and lack of interest to work with older cohorts. Change of direction in this trend involves the inclusion of age related topics in university curriculum as well as promoting direct contact with older adults.
The author would like to thank Emma Antrobus for her constructive comments on this paper.
This work was partially funded by a grant (ref. SFRH/BD/30226/2006) from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal.