Social Work Students' Perceptions About Incompetence in Elders

Abstract

Graduate and undergraduate social work students (N = 172) were surveyed to investigate their perceptions concerning memory impairment in elders. Approximately 70% of those surveyed did not strongly disagree with the perception that all elders are memory impaired. In further analysis, significant correlations were found to exist between this variable and several other variables, including perceptions of elders' behaviors (r = .602, p = .000) and perceptions of communicating with elders (r = .630, p = .000). In a standard multiple regression, three significant predictor variables accounted for 53.4% of the model's adjusted variance. These predictor variables included: (a) perceptions of elders' behaviors, (b) perceptions of communicating with elders, and (c) having taken courses in gerontology.

Key Words:

• Dementia
• ageism
• Alzheimer's disease
• aging education