How children view old people and ageing: A developmental study of children in four countries

Abstract

Children in Australia, England, North America and Sweden aged 5-15 years were interviewed about physical and sexual development. In a preliminary section children were asked to identify old age in terms of a specific age, what happened to old people, and what were the causes of old age. It was found that children developed a realistic identification of old age by 9 years of age, the English speaking countries showing increasing realism with increasing age, Australian children the least realistic. Swedish children made more realistic assessments earlier. The majority of characteristics attributed to old people categorized as physical, psychological, social-economic and sexual were negative and were related to a biologically based decline model in all countries. In the English speaking countries, children scored low on a Piagetian scale on “the causes of old age” most achieving concrete operations by 15 years and only a few achieving formal operations. Boys scored significantly higher than girls in most age groups (p < .05). Reasons were postulated to explain negative views of old age and low reasoning levels concerning the causes of ageing.

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