Attitudes toward Older Workers among Undergraduates: Does Status Make a Difference?

Abstract

Most research on attitudes toward older adults does not address subgroups of older adults. This study evaluated whether attitudes among undergraduates towards older professionals were more positive than those toward older adults in general. A 2 × 2 factorial design with the covariate of knowledge of aging was used with measures from two attitude scales. Independent variables were the priming target of older adults in general or older professionals and the order of administration of the two attitude scales with a sample of 107 undergraduates. The covariate was significant for three of the four dependent measures. The scale specifically developed for attitudes toward older workers showed a significant difference between the priming instruction groups, with more positive attitudes toward older professionals. Significant interactions in the same direction were noted for two of the other scales: Avoidance and Discrimination. The results suggest that professional status does provide one case in which negative attitudes among undergraduates toward older workers and adults in general may not hold.

Acknowledgments

I thank A. Campbell, K. Schmid, M. Solomona, and N. Thomas for their efforts in data collection. An earlier version of this report was presented at the 44th annual meeting of the Australian Psychological Society, Darwin, October 2009.

Notes

Note. BOW: Beliefs about Older Workers. All correlations over .25 are significant at p < .01. Primed attitudes toward older professionals are above the diagonal; attitudes toward older adults in general are below the diagonal.

Note. BOW: Beliefs about Older Workers.