Young Children's Perception of the Elderly

Abstract

Young children's perceptions of the elderly were examined using Child-Adolescent Facts on Aging Quiz in order to assess what relationships exist between perception and contact with the elderly, gender, and age. Comparisons were also made between the findings in this study and a previous one in the United States of America. One hundred and twenty respondents comprising fifty males and seventy females from two primary schools answered the questionnaire. The mean age of the respondents was 10.6 years and about 63% had at least a living grandparent. The results revealed that the mean percentage error was 47%. Item 6-“most older workers do not work as well as younger workers” had the highest error rate of 83% while item 4-“old people are not as strong as younger people” had the lowest error rate of 16%. All the three variables were found not to have any influence on the respondent's perception of the elderly. Some similarities and differences in perception of the elderly were found in the Nigerian and American samples. The implications of these findings are discussed and further areas of research suggested.