The attitudes of young University of Malta students towards old age : a quantitative study

Abstract

This study explores the attitudes of young University of Malta students towards old age. In different cultures around the globe, young adults have different perceptions with regards to elderly people. This study investigated how Maltese young adults perceive old age. Furthermore, it explored the relationship between having anxiety about aging and having ageist attitudes, and whether age, gender and contact with the elderly have a significant relationship with anxiety about aging and ageist attitudes. The study made use of a questionnaire, that consisted of an adaptation of the anxiety about aging scale and the revised version of the Fraboni scale of ageism. 99 respondents replied to the questionnaire, out of which 94 were used for the purpose of this study (n=94; 45 male, 49 female). The results were analyzed using the Pearson Correlation Coefficient, the independent samples t-test and the Spearman Correlation Coefficient. Findings showed that having high anxiety about aging also implies having high negative attitudes towards old age (high ageism). Age and ageism seem to be significantly related amongst University of Malta students, while age and anxiety about aging are not. Moreover, there are significant gender differences when it comes to ageism, however these differences are not significant for anxiety about aging. With regards to contact with the elderly, both communication with the elderly and providing regular assistance to the elderly were not significantly related with anxiety; however, communication with the elderly seems to have a weak and negative but significant relationship with ageism.