Negative stereotypes about old age and its relationship to sociodemographic variables in a sample of university students

Abstract

Negative ageing stereotypes is a pejorative perception of older people that are associated with loss of capabilities, impairment, and illness. These stereotypes are ingrained in society and are influenced by various socio-demographic variables such as age, sex, or the degree of contact with these people among others. Thesestereotypesare present in society, from theelderlythemselvesto theyoung. This workaimed to evaluate the influence of socio-demographic variables on old age stereotypes in a sample of university students. The sample consisted of 183 volunteer students of the degrees of psychology, criminology, and teaching, from the University of Cadiz. An ad hoc questionnaire was administered to them telematically with the sociodemographic variables age, sex, and contact with dependent and non-dependent elderly persons, and the Questionnaire of Negative Ageing Stereotypes (CENVE) (Blanca Mena, Sánchez Palacios, and Trianes, 2005). The analysis of the scores obtained in the questionnaire showed that the sample presented a low presence of negative stereotypes. However, in the frequency analysis, it was determined that the character-personality factor showed a high presence of negative stereotypes towards old age, followed by the motivational-social factor. Regarding sex, no significant differences were found between men and women in the presence of ageing stereotypes. Regarding the variable contact with dependent and non-dependent older people, there were no significant differences in terms of for the CENVE and the three factors. Finally, the results of the ANOVA, showed that the subjects who had no contact with non-dependent elderly people presented greater Negative ageing stereotypes than those who had some kind of contact.