Differences in attitudes between younger and older people toward old age. Implications for counselling

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract

Acknowledgements

List of tables

List of figures

CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION
1.1 THE PROBLEM
1.2 RATIONALE FOR THIS STUDY
1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDIES
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

CHAPTER TWO - LITERATURE REVIEW 5
2.1 MEANING OF AGEISM
2.2 OVERVIEW OF AGEISM STUDIES
2.2.1 International studies of ageism
A General trends
B Methods to reduce ageism
Through education
Promote intergenerational relationships
Contact with older people
2.2.2 Local studies of ageism
A Factors affecting attitudes toward older people
Age
Educational levels
Working status
Six dimensions in the attitudes toward older people
B Changing role and status of older people in Hong Kong
Perception of older people
The image about old and ageing
2.3 KNOWLEDGE ABOUT AGEISM FROM THE LITERATURE REVIEW
2.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

CHAPTER THREE - METHODOLOGY 16
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 REASONS FOR CHOOSING QUANTITATIVE METHOD
3.3 GENERAL DESIGN AND PROCEDURES
3.3.1 Characteristics of the participants
Student respondents
Older respondents
3.3.2 Definition of variables
3.3.3 Hypotheses
3.3.4 Instrument selection
3.3.5 Procedures
Survey 1
Survey 2
3.4 LIMITATION AND STRENGTH OF THE STUDY

CHAPTER FOUR - FINDINGS 26
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 RESPONSE RATES
4.3 DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS
4.3.1 Intergenerational relationships - students
4.3.2 Intergenerational relationships – older people
4.4 ATTITUDES OF PEOPLE TOWARD OLDER ADULTS
4.4.1 Cognitive component of attitudes toward elderly
4.4.2 Affective component of attitudes toward older people
4.4.3 Behavioural component of attitudes toward older people
Behavioural attitudes of students
Behavioural attitudes of older respondents
4.5 FACTORS AFFECTING ATTITUDES TOWARDS PEOPLE
4.5.1 Correlation analysis
4.5.2 Regression analysis of predictor variables
Student respondents
Older respondents
4.6 INTERACTION AS THE PREDICTION OF REDUCTION OF AGEISM
4.6.1 Student respondents
4.6.2 Older respondents
4.7 SUMMARY

CHAPTER FIVE – DISSCUSSION & RECOMMENDATIONS 51
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
5.3 IMPLICATION OF THIS STUDY
5.3.1 Education for younger people
5.3.2 Intergenerational Activities
5.3.3 Positive ageing programs

CHAPTER SIX – CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

AI Sample questionnaire for students

AII Sample questionnaire for older people

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of this study was to examine the general public’s perception on older people. Based on this theme, five research questions were identified. 1) What are the attitudes of younger and older people toward elderly?, 2) Are older peoples’ attitudes toward themselves being influenced by prevailing ageism views?, 3) What are the predictors of ageism?, 4) Do the interaction between younger and older people influences the attitudes toward older people?, and 5) What are the implications of the above research findings toward older people for counselling?. Based on these questions, five hypotheses were developed. No significant difference was found between the attitudes of younger and older people toward the latter. In terms of concept and image about older people, older people tend to see themselves more negative than younger people. People with higher educational levels, younger age and religion tend to score a higher value of FAQ than people with lower educational levels, older age and non-religious. People with higher educational levels, younger age and religion tend to form more positive image toward older people than people with low lower educational levels, older age and non-religious. People with more interaction with older adults tend to have higher scores on FAQ. Basically all the hypotheses were rejected, but this study did make several contributions to the study of ageism in Hong Kong. First, this study found that attitudes of younger students toward older adults were more negative than older people. Students’ attitudes toward older people were dominated by negative ageism views and image; whereas, older peoples’ attitudes toward older adults were mixed with both negative and positive ageism views. It was suggested in this study, attitudes of people toward older adults have to be analyzed from three perspectives, namely ageism, image about older people and attitudes toward caring in order to generate more precise pictures about ageism. Finally, the study suggested that education, intergenerational activities and positive ageing programs could be used to reduce ageism in our societies

Acknowledgement

Writing this dissertation has been a long process. I was fortunate that my family supported and encouraged me along the way. To all of them, I give my most heartfelt thanks. I particularly would like to thank my dissertation supervisor Dr Raymond Ngan for his unfailing support, guidance and patience. Without his support and insight, it is impossible to finish this dissertation. My sincere thanks also go to Dr Kwong Wai Man and Dr Wu Keung Fai, Joseph for their advice on data analysis. In addition, I would like to extend my gratitude to the respondents who have participated in the surveys. Acknowledge is also due to the Department of Applied Social Studies for providing me an opportunity to pursue a Master of Social Sciences in Counselling. Last but not the least, most of the credit for this dissertation goes to my wife Denise and my mom. Their support, patience, understanding and love bring me joy and hope

List of Tables

Table 3.1 Internal consistency (Cronbach α) for the variables measured in the questionnaire

Table 4.1 Demographic characteristics of samples

Table 4.2 Demographic characteristics of students

Table 4.3 Demographic characteristics of older people

Table 4.4 Respondents’ attitudes toward older people

Table 4.5 Item responses in the FAQ

Table 4.6 Differences in the perceptions of older people

Table 4.7 Image of older people

Table 4.8 Behavioural attitudes toward elderly care

Table 4.9 Correlation of peoples’ attitudes toward older people with predictor variables

Table 4.10 Correlation of students’ attitudes toward older people with predictor variables

Table 4.11 Correlation of older peoples’ attitudes with predictor variables

Table 4.12 Effects of demographic variables on attitudes toward elderly (Student)

Table 4.13 Effects of demographic variables on attitudes toward elderly (elderly)

Table 4.14 Effects of interaction variables on attitudes toward elderly (Student)

Table 4.15 Effects of interaction variables on attitudes toward elderly (elderly)

List of Figures

Figure 3.1 Diagrammatic presentation of the relationships between variables

Figure 3.2 Diagrammatic presentation of the instruments to be used in this study

Figure 4.1 Diagrammatic presentation of the relationships between predictors and attitudes toward older people (students)

Figure 4.2 Diagrammatic presentation of the relationships between interaction variables and attitudes toward older people (Student)

Figure 4.3 Diagrammatic presentation of the relationships between interaction variables and attitudes toward older people (old)

CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION

1.1 THE PROBLEM

Ageism like racism or sexism is particularly prevalent in youth-oriented societies like United States (Aiken, 2002). Ageism suggested a discrimination against people simply because they are old (Butler, 1974; Palmore, 1999). Studies found that ageism is commonly associated with perceiving older people with declining physical health, socially isolated and more stubborn. These attitudes make people believe that older people are unique and different from people in other age groups.

Studies found that younger and older people’s attitudes toward older adults were different (Chow, 1997; Law, 1982). The major finding in these studies was that older people viewed themselves more negative than younger people (Chow, 1997). Why do older people have negative images about themselves? Whether these images are reflection of a stereotyped social attitude toward old age or an actual experience of older people about getting old and ageing in Hong Kong? Palmore (1999) suggested that this is due to the acceptance of negative stereotypes by older people. These stereotypes form the negative beliefs about old which trigger individual’s negative attitudes toward older adults. At societal level, aggregation of peoples’ negative attitudes toward old and ageing develop discriminating behaviours toward older people.

At individual level, Victor (2005) suggested that widespread acceptance of negative stereotype about ageing and old was problematic, because people base on incorrect knowledge to think about old. As a result, knowledge about old and ageing is not a true reflection of the realities of ageing. In this light, it is worth examining what kinds of factors contribute to the construction of negative attitudes toward older people. Based on the research findings, recommendations could be proposed to reduce ageism in Hong Kong.

1.2 RATIONALE FOR THIS STUDY

There are three reasons to justify this study. First, ageism research almost consistently indicates that peoples’ knowledge, beliefs and perceptions of older people are negative (Chow, 1997; French & Mosher-Ashley, 2000; Kimuna, Knox & Zusman, 2005; Knox, Kimuna & Zusman, 2005; Law, 1982; Lin, 1993; Tan, Hawkins, & Ryan, 2001). These studies communicate a message that negative attitudes toward older people often go unchallenged by the society (Cuddy, Norton & Fiske, 2005). Do negative images about old exert direct influence on perception of older people?

However, promotion of Positive Ageing by the World Health Organization (WHO) has tried to create more positive images on older people such as healthy, active social participation, and adequate financial security (Chong, Ng, Woo and Alex, 2006). The idea of Positive Ageing reflects an attempt to reorient people’s view toward older people to be more positive. Therefore, there may be a possibility that peoples’ attitudes toward older adults may not be as negative as we commonly believe. If this is so, is ageism in Hong Kong not as serious as in other Western countries?

Thirdly, research on ageism in Hong Kong is limited. Most of the related studies were published at least a decade ago. In addition, these studies only focused on examining peoples’ attitudes toward older people. They did not examine the extent of ageism in Hong Kong. In this respect, it was not possible to determine the levels of ageism in Hong Kong. Moreover, the data on ageism in Hong Kong are rather outdated and failed to reflect the current situation. Therefore, a new study is needed. This study not only examined peoples’ attitudes toward getting old and ageing, but also it investigated the levels of ageism in Hong Kong and made recommendations to reduce it.

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDIES

Firstly, there are many studies on attitudes toward older people. However, all the local published studies simply related attitudes toward older people as ageism. In fact, ageism is a broad area of study, and people’s attitudes are only part of it. Therefore, simply examining attitudes toward older people might not be able to provide an accurate measurement of ageism. The present study is different from previous studies, as it employed a more rigorous definition of ageism and to employ a number of research instruments which would provide a more accurate assessment on ageism in Hong Kong.

Secondly, this study can be regarded as one of the pioneer studies to employ a more vigorous instrument to examine ageism in Hong Kong. Ajzen (2001) argued that attitudes composed of cognitive, affective and behavioural components. By examining local and overseas studies of ageism it found that ageism were usually operationalized either by Palmore’s “Fact on Ageing Quiz” (FAQ) (Palmore, 1999), or Rosencrantz and McNevin’s (1969) the “Aging Semantic Differential” (ASD). These instruments grossly consider the cognitive and affective aspects of attitudes, but they fail to collect detailed information regarding the behavioural aspect of attitudes. In order to have a more accurate assessment of ageism, the design of an instrument should assess different components of attitudes. Therefore, the third contribution of this study is to employ Palmore’s FAQ as a measure of the cognitive component of attitudes, Rosencrantz and McNevin’s (1969) Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) as an instrument to assess the affective component of attitudes, and finally, a self-constructed 24 question items to measure the behavioural component of the attitudes.

1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The number of elderly population (aged 60 or above) will increase. It is therefore necessary to examine ageism through the study of peoples’ attitudes toward older adults. The recommendations proposed in the study could generate some measures to reduce negative stereotypes toward older people, so as to reduce ageism. With these reasons, the following research objectives were identified;

1) What are peoples’ attitudes toward elderly?
2) Are older peoples’ attitudes toward themselves being influenced by prevailing ageism views?
3) Do interaction between younger and older people influences younger peoples’ attitudes toward older adults?
4) What are the implications of the findings toward older people for counselling?

CHAPTER TWO - LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 MEANING OF AGEISM

It has been suggested that negative and stereotypic perception of older people is apparent in the areas of language and media (Davis & Davis, 1985; Hummert, 1990; Lee, Carpenter, & Meyers, 2006; Palmore, 1999). For example, studies found that higher rates of television viewing were associated with negative attitudes about older adults (Passuth & Cook, 1985). Other studies suggested that portrayals of older adults on television may not accurately reflect contemporary ageing (Lee, Carpenter, & Meyers, 2006). Apart from television media, some commonly used expressions like "over the hill" and "don't be an old fuddy-duddy" denote old age as a period of impotency and incompetency (Nuessel, 1982). Perhaps, these kinds of language and television programs are constantly hitting the heart of people to reinforcing them the negative attitudes or incorrect ideas about ageing. Consequently, negative views about older people are formed. Ageism is the term used to describe this stereotypic and negative bias against people because they are old (Butler, 1969; Palmore, 1999). One would ask what can be done to change peoples’ attitudes toward older adults so as to reduce ageism in the society? One of the aims of this project study was to answer this question.

2.2 OVERVIEW OF AGEISM STUDIES

Studies of ageism have a long history and it can be divided into two main periods. The first period began at 1950s and ended in early 1970s. This is the period that researchers began to notice older people are being treated differently (Barron, 1953; Drake, 1958). However, conceptualization of the issue was lacking. Researchers employed psychological approach to study the issue. In this light, attitudes, stereotypes and perception toward older people were used to explain the causes of discrimination against older people. Subsequently, with further research people found that attitudes, stereotypes or perception were inadequate to explain the discrimination against elderly (Law, 1982). Indeed, researchers found that later life being a period characterised by economic insecurity, poor health, loneliness, resistance to change and failing physical and mental powers (Tuckman & Lorge, 1952). The scopes of problems encountered by older people should be expanded so as to find better ways to conceptualize the issue on ageism.

Continuing research effort has moved the study of discrimination against older people to ageism. In this stage, a better conceptualization of the issue was developed, and the term “ageism” was invented to describe the discrimination against people because they are old (Butler, 1969; Palmore, 1999). Based on the definition of ageism, two research instruments were developed to measure the levels of ageism in societies. One is Palmore’s the Fact on Ageing Quiz (FAQ) (Palmore, 1975, 1999), and the other is Rosencrantz and McNevin’s (1969) the Aging Semantic Differential (ASD). These instruments have been frequently used by researchers to assess ageism in different countries (Chow, 1997; French & Mosher-Ashley, 2000; Kimuna, Knox & Zusman, 2005; Knox, Kimuna & Zusman, 2005; Law, 1982; Lin, 1993; Lin, 2005; Tan, Hawkins, & Ryan, 2001).

2.2.1 International studies of ageism

A General trends

In general, most of the ageism research employed either Palmore’s FAQ (1977, 1998) or Rosencrantz and McNevin’s (1969) ASD to study the issue of ageism. It was found that some of the studies only report qualitatively the contents of ageism such that older people were considered as frail, senile or stubborn, they did not report the levels of ageism in their studies. Overall speaking, the studies of ageism found that ageism view influences peoples’ perception of older adults (Chow, 1997; French & Mosher-Ashley, 2000; Kimuna, Knox & Zusman, 2005; Knox, Kimuna & Zusman, 2005; Law, 1982; Lin, 1993; Tan, Hawkins, & Ryan, 2001). Specifically, younger people’s attitudes toward elderly were negative and their knowledge about ageing and old was low. Furthermore, older people view themselves more negative than younger people (Chow, 1997; Law, 1982).

In a study, Knapp, Beaver and Reed (2002) used FAQ (Palmore 1977) to examine knowledge of ministers and ministry students about old. The study employed the first version FAQ which contained 25 question items to assess ageism. They found that the mean FAQ score of ministers and ministry students were 10.57 and 9.22 respectively. These figures suggested that with the maximum possible score of 25, the mean scores from both ministers and ministry were rather low. In a similar study, Monk and Kaye (1982) who used the FAQ (Palmore, 1977) to test the gerontological knowledge and attitudes of students with religion found that the mean number of correct responses was 15.53. In both studies, the findings suggested that the knowledge about old and ageing among the students with religion was relatively low.

Studies found that students engaged in human service professions such as social work or medical training also exhibit negative attitudes toward older people (Gellis, Sherman, & Lawrance, 2003; Duerson, Thomas, Chang & Stevens, 1992). Gellis, Sherman, and Lawrance (2003) found that graduate social work students had already formed negative impressions of older people prior to their enrolment. Duerson, Thomas, Chang and Stevens (1992) examined the attitudes of medical students toward older people. They also found negative attitudes toward older people existed in the medical students prior to their enrolment in the medical schools. The situation did not change so much. In a recent study, Kishimoto, Nagoshi, Williams, Masaki and Blanchette (2005) find that geriatrics trainees also showed negative attitudes toward senior care.

Indeed, conventional wisdom about old and ageing suggests that older people are increasingly conservative with attitudinal rigidity and declining in physical health (Cutler & Danigelis, 2005). Therefore, it should not be surprised to find that people exhibit negative attitude toward older people. Indeed, the findings suggested that negative stereotypes against older people exist and often go unchallenged by society (Cuddy, Norton & Fiske, 2005). In this light, it may be possible to argue that the findings of peoples’ attitudes toward old and ageing may reflect the social or ageism views rather than a reflection of individual’s experiences about old and ageing.

B Methods to reduce ageism

Through education

Knapp, Beaver and Reed (2002) suggested that infusion of gerontological content into education may be able to improve students’ knowledge about old and ageing. This argument did receive some support from the empirical findings. In both McGuire’s (1993) and Blunk and Williams’s (1997) studies found that students’ perceptions of the elderly were negative. These perceptions could be changed by exposing students to a positive classroom curriculum that focused on presenting elderly in a positive ways. However, in another study in Australia, Scott, Minichiello and Browning’s (1998) examined Australian secondary students’ knowledge about older people before and after attending gerontological education found that the mean score of the FAQ (Palmore, 1977) among 155 students whose ages ranged from 17-18 was 17.0 and 17.6 respectively. Firstly, these scores indicated a low level of knowledge about old and ageing. Secondly, although the mean FAQ score after gerontological education showed a statistically significant change by increasing 0.6 unit, in practical terms, students’ knowledge about old and ageing has increased in only one item (Scott, Minichiello & Browning, 1998). This indicated that gerontological education was not effective in changing students’ perceptions about elderly, because students continued to hold negative attitudes toward older adults which were indicated by a very slight increase in the FAQ score. In other words, education alone was not effective to produce attitudes change, because education does not provide opportunities for students to reflect and practices new knowledge of older people (Butler, 1993; Harmetz, 1996). In this light, effect of education was not long lasting (Ragan & Bowen, 2001).

In order to strengthen educational intervention on changing students’ attitudes toward older people, Ragan and Bowen (2001) suggested to include reinforcing activities such as post-program discussion or interaction workshops so as to strengthen students’ positive knowledge about elderly. They argued if the reinforcement activities were absent from educational curriculum, new information learnt from attitude change program would be easily forgotten. They tested the reinforcement hypothesis by setting up 1 experimental group and 2 control groups. The findings supported their argument, as participants in the experimental group had the opportunities to practice the new knowledge learnt, as a result, participants would invest more cognitive effort into the task of attitude change (Ragan & Bowen, 2001). Although effects of education may not be long lasting in inducing change of attitudes, including reinforcement activities into education can enhance the effects of education to produce attitude change.

Promote intergenerational relationships

Apart from education, Scott, Minichiello and Browning (1998) found that contact with grandparents showed a significant impact on the number of correct answers given by the students prior to the intervention to change their attitudes toward older people. That is to say, knowledge about ageing and old increased as a result of frequent contact with grandparents. As suggested by Harwood, Hewstone, Paolini and Voci (2005), children’s evaluation of older people was mediated by their actual contact with grandparents. By the same token, if students maintain good relationship with their grandparents, it should be expected that they would display more positive attitudes toward older people.

Contact with older people

However, in Hong Kong, the living area is usually small. It is unusual to find three generations living in the same house. Most often, the families are composed of 2 generations only and older parents are completely absent. In this light, interaction between grandparents and children is rare. To overcome this barrier, Hoe and Davidson (2002) suggested that positive attitudes toward older people can be developed through exposing children with older people. In a study, Duerson, Thomas, Chang and Stevens (1992) found that interaction of medical trainees with older patients could significantly increase their knowledge about old. They found that the mean FAQ score of students before and after attending interaction training with older people was 15.63 and 16.69 respectively. Experience with elderly gained during training contributed to an improvement in students’ knowledge about older people (Stewart, Giles, Paterson & Butler, 2005). In this light, interaction between younger and older people can influence the former to develop positive attitudes toward the latter.

2.2.2 Local studies of ageism

In this section, it would focus the attention to review local studies. Only two local studies can be found. One is the study of attitudes toward older people by Law (1982). The other is the study of changing role and status of elderly by Chow (1997). Both studies were published a long time ago. Their findings may be outdated and could not reflect the present situation. However, these studies still provided some background information related to attitudes toward older people in Hong Kong.

A Factors affecting attitudes toward older people

In the Law’s study, the author’s intention was to propose a better conceptualization of attitudes and to develop an instrument to assess people’s attitudes toward older adults (Law, 1982). Firstly, the study suggested that people’s attitudes toward older people could be predicted from age, educational attainment and working status. Secondly, attitudes are multi-dimensional in nature.

Age

The study found that when age was considered as a predictor of ageism, younger people tended to have more positive attitudes than older people toward the issue of old and ageing. Also, older people tended to perceive themselves more negative than younger people (Law, 1982). In particular, older people considered older adults as more out of place and burden to others. In other words, age exhibited a positive relationship with negative attitudes toward older adults. However, Law (1982) did not offer reasons to account for his finding. It would expect that when people get older, they would find their physical health and capabilities declining when compared with younger people. This phenomenon would especially prevalent in the “Youth-oriented” society (Aiken, 2002). Therefore, when people get older, they tend to have negative views about themselves and these views would be generalized across a broader population of older adults.

Educational levels

People with higher education attainment tended to consider older people not so much out of place in the society and more understandable about the phenomenon of getting old, and therefore they tended to have higher acceptance and tolerance toward older people. However, they tended to consider older people as a burden to others, because older people were consumers of welfare services (Law, 1982). Overall speaking more educated respondents tended to have less negative attitude toward older adults.

Working status

Comparing the attitudes toward older people between working and non-working groups found that non-working respondents inclined to have more negative attitudes toward older people. On the other hand, respondents from working group tended to perceive older people in more positive ways.

Six dimensions in the attitudes toward older people

Historically, attitudes have been considered as either positive or negative. This study reported that attitudes toward older people were multi-dimensional and consisted of 6 dimensions (exclusion, family responsibility, burden to others, ageing, equity, and relation with elderly). Each dimension assessed a specific aspect of old and ageing. Exclusion considered the degree to which older people were considered as distinct from people in other age group. Family responsibility measured the care received from their children. Burden to others concerned whether older people created a burden to family or society. Ageing concerned people’s attitudes toward getting old. Equity regarded people’s value judgment on whether one should continue to work and make a living after retirement or not. Finally, relationship with older people reflected the ease or difficulty in getting along with the older people.

B Changing role and status of older people in Hong Kong

The intention of Chow’s (1997) study was to propose the elderly policies for the Government which based on the role and status of older people. The main differences between Chow’s and Law’s study is that Chow did not employed vigorous statistical technique to analyze the data. Chow simply based on the simple frequency and percentage count as the method for data analysis. However, in the Chow’s (1997) study, the FAQ (Palmore, 1975), and the ASD (Rosencrantz & McNevin, 1969) were employed to assess the attitudes and image about older people. Furthermore, in the analysis, Chow has further grouped the 25 items in the FAQ into five domains. These domains represented a specific aspect of getting old and ageing. These domains were physical well-being, psychological well-being, economic well-being, adaptation to old age, and facts about old age. However, the study like the previous study did not report the level of ageism in Hong Kong.

Perception of older people

Perceptions of older people were assessed by the FAQ (Palmore, 1975). The general finding was that for both younger and older people’s attitudes toward elderly were negative. Older people were not only perceived to be declining in physical health, but also leading a miserable life and were mostly poor. Particularly, the perceptions of older people about themselves were mostly poor, and this indicated that older people have an even poorer image of themselves. Furthermore, most of the older respondents found difficulties to adjust to later old age life and nearly half of them commented that the majority of the older people were socially isolated and lonely. On the whole, younger respondents could not avoid stereotyping older people being pretty alike. Both younger and older respondents exaggerated the problems encountered by the older adults, and they believed that more older people would stay in institutions and were in need of medical care.

The image about old and ageing

Basically, the older respondents were found to be more conscious of both good and bad sides of the image of the elderly. On the positive aspect of image of the elderly, the general picture held by older respondents was that older people were leading a leisurely life, caring and forgiving, calm and steady, and courteous manners. On the negative descriptions, elderly people were perceived by both younger and older respondents to be ageing fast, slow in motion, frail and decline in health, selfish, self-centered, stubborn, lonely and pitiful.

Younger respondents tend to perceive older people leading a leisurely life, experienced, friendly and approachable, but elderly people were not perceived by the young as active, nor possessing wisdom. Overall speaking, younger respondents tended to have more negative perceptions and images of old people.

2.3 KNOWLEDGE ABOUT AGEISM FROM THE LITERATURE REVIEW

Overall speaking, younger people’s knowledge about older adults was low and their attitudes toward older people were negative. This finding suggested that younger people’s perceptions of old were not based on their real experiences with older people. Indeed, the low levels of knowledge about old and negative attitudes about old further reinforce the idea that younger people’s attitudes toward older adults were the result of general stereotypic view toward older people. This explains why older people were being seen as a distinct cohort (Barron, 1953; Drake, 1958).

Practically speaking, the studies did not attempt to find the cause of ageism. Instead, some remedies or methods to reduce ageism were proposed. The methods such as educating children the positive aspect of old and ageing, development of reinforcement activities to strength children’s knowledge about old, promotion of intergenerational relationship and develop activities to encourage the contact between younger and older people were suggested and researched.

2.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The main purpose of the present study was to examine the general public’s perception of older people. Based on these themes, five research questions were identified.

1) What are the attitudes of younger and older people toward elderly?
2) Are older peoples’ attitudes toward themselves being influenced by prevailing ageism views?
3) What are the predictors of ageism?
4) Do the interaction between younger and older people influences the attitudes toward older people?
5) What are the implications of the above research findings toward older people for counselling?

CHAPTER THREE - METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter discussed research design for this study. It was organized into three main sub-headings: (a) reasons for choosing quantitative method, (b) general design and procedures, and (c) limitation and strength of this study.

3.2 REASONS FOR CHOOSING QUANTITATIVE METHOD

There are many methods available for this study such as survey, interview and observation. Peoples’ attitudes toward older people would be central to this study. Among various research methods, questionnaire survey would be selected, because this method is the most economical and efficient way to collect opinions from a large sample than observational methods (Babbie, 2002). Furthermore, the strength of this methodology relied on its objectivity in the study. In this respect, researchers are expected to maintain the sense of objectivity and impersonal, acting as the outsiders, following strict procedures for data collection (Creswell, 2005). The data collected would ideally reflect the opinions of the sample about older people and free from the inference of researchers. Ultimately, the outcomes of the research would explain and predict the relationships between variables. If the sample size is large enough, the results could be generalized to large population (Creswell, 2005).

3.3 GENERAL DESIGN AND PROCEDURES

In October to November 2006, 290 participants including 150 senior secondary students and 140 older people whose age were over 60 were invited to answer the questionnaires designed to examine their attitudes toward older adults. The questionnaires for younger and old age respondents were listed in Appendices AI and AII respectively.

3.3.1 Characteristics of the participants

In order to ensure diversities among respondents in each cohort group, selection of respondents was based on the quota sampling method. Details of sample selection were discussed in the following section.

Student respondents

Author is a secondary school teacher. All the student participants in this study were invited by author’s friends who are their teachers. In order to ensure the diversity and to avoid the influence of school culture, students were selected from 3 institutions instead of one single institution. A total of 150 students were invited to take part in the survey. The composition of the student respondents were as follows:

1) Form 6 students taking the liberal study stream: N=15
2) Post-secondary students taking the Diploma in Business Administration: N=95
3) Students from a community college taking the Associate of Business: N=40

The purpose of inviting senior secondary students (including students in the post-secondary and community colleges) was due to the fact that students in these colleges were recruited from the general public. In other words, these students were recruited from different sources, diversity in the sample could be ensured. Also, the effects of school culture on attitudes toward older people could be minimized. Furthermore, students from Form 6, Post-secondary and Community college represent different levels of abilities. Students in the Form 6 group represent the group of the highest ability, because competition for Form 6 was keen, and students with good academic achievement would enrol in Form 6 education. If entrance to Form 6 was declined, students would choose to study 3 years Associate Degree program. The entrance for this program usually required students to obtain at least 5 subject passes in HKCEE. If the entrance to the Associate Degree program was declined, students would choose to study the post-secondary education. Usually, post-secondary education did not have entrance requirement and it would attract students from the lowest abilities group. These colleges were selected to represent students from higher, middle to lower abilities.

Older respondents

The age of respondents in the old age category should be at least over 60. These respondents were recruited from an elderly-care institution, Buddhist temple and two Christian churches. Selection of respondents relied on the connection of author with the institution and the churches. One of the author’s colleagues was the staff in the elderly-care institution. With the permission of the Centre In Charge in the elderly-care institution, 10 respondents from the institution agreed to participate in the survey. Participants from Buddhist temple were invited through the connection of a relatives of author who was working in the Buddhist temple, 60 participants from the temple agreed to answer the questionnaire. Finally, two of the author’s colleagues were Christian and they have attended Churches regularly, and agreed to help author to invited older Christian from their churches to answer the questionnaires, and a total of 70 participants from two churches took part in the survey.

The purpose of selecting older respondents from institution and churches was based on the following assumptions.

1) Respondents from elderly-care institution tended to be frail and old, and therefore their attitudes toward old and ageing maybe the most negative.
2) Respondents attending Buddhist temple tended to be more traditional-minded people.
3) People attending Christian churches tended to be the middle income group, or they were usually not to worry too much about their living.

In previous studies, older respondents were usually recruited from the lower socioeconomic status group (Chow, 1997; Law, 1982). Respondents from Buddhist temple and Christian churches were not examined. Therefore, this study wanted to examine the ageism in these groups.

3.3.2 Definition of variables

Two sets of questionnaires were developed for this study and questions about gender, age, educational levels, age, religion, looking after older people, self-rated relationship quality with parents and grandparents, concept of ageing, image about older people, caring behaviours toward older people, and preference for home and institutional care were included. The interrelationships between the variables were shown in Figure 3.1& 3.2.

Two sets of questionnaires containing the statements measuring (i) concept of older people, (ii) image about older people, (iii) caring behaviours toward older people, (iv) attitudes toward older people, (v) demographic information, and (vi) interaction information between younger and older people were developed.

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Figure 3.1: Diagrammatic presentation of the relationships between variables

3.3.3 Hypotheses

H1: No significant difference was found between the attitudes of younger and older people toward the latter.

H2: In terms of concept and image about older people, older people tend to see themselves more negative than the younger people.

H3a: People with higher educational levels, younger age and religion tend to score a higher value of FAQ than people with lower educational levels, older age and non-religious.

H3b: People with higher educational levels, younger age and religion tend to form more positive image toward older people than people with lower educational levels, older age and non-religious.

H4: People with more interaction with older adults tend to have higher scores on FAQ.

3.3.4 Instrument selection

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Figure 3.2: Diagrammatic presentation of the instruments to be used in this study

Examining the instrument available for this study found that although most of the researchers claimed that they have developed their own instruments for assessing attitudes toward older people, most of these questionnaires were in fact modified from the Palmore’s (1999) Fact about Ageing Quiz (FAQ) or Rosencrantz and McNevin’s (1969) Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) to fit specific research purposes. In this light, Palmore’s (1999) Fact about Ageing Quiz (FAQ) and Rosencrantz and McNevin’s (1969) Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) were selected for inclusion in the questionnaires to measure the concept and image about older people respectively.

The FAQ is a 25 item quiz which tests respondent’s knowledge about older people. Sample question items includes “majority of old people (past age 65) are senile (i.e. defective memory, disoriented, or demented)”, “The majority of old people feel miserable most of the time”, “About 10% of the aged are healthy enough to carry out their normal activities” and “Most old people are set in their ways and unable to change”. A final score was computed based on the number of correct responses. However, in the present study, in addition to “true” and “false” response options, a “don’t know” response option was added. Courtenay and Weidemann (1985), along with Miller and Dodder (1980), suggested that a “don’t know” option yields more accurate scores of an individual’s knowledge of ageing, minimizes guessing, and improves the use of the FAQ as a research instrument.

Rosencrantz and McNevin’s (1969) Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) was employed. This instrument has the Chinese translated version which has been used in the Chow’s (1997) study. The instrument contains 30 adjectives, and 15 adjectives describe positive images of elderly and another 15 adjectives describe negative images of older people. Respondents were required to answer whether they “agree” or “disagree” with the adjective in describing the image of older adults. A score of positive image was computed based on the number of “agree” responses in the adjectives describing positive images, and similarly a score of negative image was computed by the number of “agree” responses in the adjectives describing negative images.

Measurement of attitudes toward older people was based on 3 instruments. The FAQ and ASD were used to measure the cognitive and affective aspects of attitudes. The behavioural aspect of attitudes was measured by the self-constructed 25 question items to examine caring behaviours toward older people. Within these 25 items, 17 items measured the daily care provided by the family members for their older parents, and 8 items assessed the reasons to offer institutional care for their older family members were constructed. The overall reliabilities coefficients for the former 17 items measuring family care was 0.94, and for the choice of institutional care is 0.87. Details of the internal consistency of the instruments were reported in the Table 3.1.

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Table 3.1: Internal consistency (Cronbach α) for the variables measured in the questionnaire

3.3.5 Procedures

Survey 1

Self-administered questionnaires examining attitudes of students toward older people were distributed to student respondents during their lesson. Forty minutes were given for students to complete the questionnaires. Before answering the questionnaire, students were told that the survey was not a test. There were no right or wrong answers. The answers were based on their perception of the questions. They were encouraged to answer the questionnaires as much as they could. Furthermore, they were informed that they have the freedom to join or quit the survey. At the end of the survey, a total of 136 questionnaires were collected.

Survey 2

Two-step data collection was employed for collecting data from the older respondents. First step, data were collected from fellowship groups in the Christian churches and Buddhist temple. Fellowships are groups of people who shared similar background in terms of age, educational levels and occupation organized by churches or Buddhist temple. The author visited the fellowship groups to distribute the self-administered questionnaires to older respondents. In addition, author also explained the purpose of the study and went through each item on the questionnaire with the respondents. The questionnaires were collected back a week after the visit.

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