When I'm 75 Years Old: Perceptions of Social Work Students

Abstract

ABSTRACT Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work students (N = 183) responded to items investigating their beliefs about what they would be like when they were age 75. From 27 items a principle component analysis identified seven factor variables that investigated perceptions of health concerns, health-related vulnerability, importance of spiritual/religious belief, social worth, cognitive capacity, fitness, and being old. Respondents believed that at age 75 they would have many health concerns, would be fit, have social worth, and would be somewhat religious/spiritual. Although most did not believe they would be as capable at 75 as they are now, most respondents did not believe that at 75 they would be vulnerable (a victim of crime, lonely, live in a nursing home, need assistance with bathing or dressing, or have Alzheimer's disease). The factor variables were entered in a standard multiple regression analysis with Perceptions of Health-Related Vulnerability as the dependent variable. The final model accounted for 54.6% of the adjusted variance using five predictor variables: (a) Perceptions of Health Concerns, (b) Perceptions of the Importance of Spiritual/Religious Beliefs, (c) Perceptions of Social Worth, (d) Perceptions of Cognitive Capacity, and (e) Perceptions of Being Old. Implications for research, practice, and education are discussed.