Examination of university students’ attitudes towards older people: the case of social work education

Abstract

ABSTRACT Turkey is undergoing a demographic transition process in which the proportion of older adult population is rapidly increasing. As a result, the professional interventions toward older people gain more importance. Because the attitudes displayed by social workers toward older people will affect the quality of the services that older people will receive, this study was aimed at determining the attitudes of social work students, who are the professionals of the future, toward the older adults, the effect of the duration of education on their attitude toward older people, and factors that positively affect attitudes toward older people. Within the scope of this study, Kogan’s Attitude toward Old People Scale and the questionnaire were administered to 506 students. It was observed that social work students displayed a more positive attitude toward older people than other students and that the time spent in social work education positively affected their attitudes toward older people. It was also observed that factors such as living with the family, presence of an older person receiving care at home, enjoying spending time with older people, having visited a nursing home or older adult care center, having taken courses on gerontology, and having the motivation to work with older adults in the future affected the students’ attitudes positively.