Racial differences in attitudes toward aging, aging knowledge, and contact

ABSTRACT

The present study assessed knowledge of aging, attitudes toward aging, ageism, and contact with older adults in a sample of 271 Non-Hispanic White and African-American undergraduates. Research examining racial differences in knowledge of aging, attitudes toward aging, ageism, and contact with older adults has been sparse. Results for the current study demonstrated a significant correlation between knowledge of aging measured by the Facts on Aging Quiz-Revised (FAQ-R) and attitudes toward aging measured by the Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) for Non-Hispanic Whites but not African-Americans. In contrast, correlations between the FAQ-R and the Fraboni Scale of Ageism (FSA) were significant for both groups. Significant group differences were also noted for the ASD-total score and ASD-Instrumentality subscale as well as for the FSA-total score, Antilocution, and Discrimination subscales. Discussion focuses on the importance of identifying cultural and contextual factors that have been neglected in the “one size fits all” approach to promoting more positive attitudes toward older adults across different racial and ethnic groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Ageism
• attitudes toward aging
• knowledge of aging
• African-American
• racial differences

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the efforts of Giavanna S. McCall, Anyssa M. Hining, Jerome W. Graham, and Bianca Diaz who helped to collect and input the data. We thank Dr. Paige Goodwin for her editorial review of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.