Advances in Social Behavior Research
Vol. 2, 01 March 2023
Open
Access | Article
Young generation’s attitudes towards aging population
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Older adults, those above 65-years-old, are an exponentially growing population in China, raising concerns around the well-being of this social group. In particular, there are intergenerational conflicts between young teens and older adults, characterized by increased prejudice, stereotypes, and ageism. Drawn upon social contact theory, this study explores these negative intergroup attitudes towards the elders as a function of intention to interact with elders in China but also investigated a possible means to promote positive intergroup relationships (i.e., reading heterogeneous stories about elders on social media). A total of 84 Chinses teenagers aged 11-14 years old were recruited. Findings suggested that children with a lower frequency of contact with elders tend to show higher perceived threats and reported more agism. Moreover, the proposed stories about elders did not necessarily alter these teens’ attitudes towards elders. Theoretical and practical cautions were discussed based on these findings.
Keywords
agism, young adults, Aging population, social contact theory., China
References
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Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Educational Innovation and Philosophical Inquiries (ICEIPI 2022), Part I
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-915371-07-2
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-915371-08-9
- Published Date
- 01 March 2023
- Series
- Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media
- ISSN (Print)
- 2753-7048
- ISSN (Online)
- 2753-7056
- DOI
- 10.54254/2753-7048/2/2022440
- Copyright
- © 2023 The Author(s)
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited