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It is important for college students to understand the influence the aging demographic shift will have on our society, even if they are not planning on a career in gerontology. Our research is focused on gaining an understanding of college students’ knowledge, misconceptions, and stereotypes about older adults. For this study, we examined the impact of course instruction on a measure of students’ ageism scores. Eighty two college students participated during the Spring 2018 semester (M = 20.57, SD = 2.97: 26 males, 56 females: 45% Caucasian, 28% African American, 9% other). Students were enrolled in one of three classes: Intro to Geropsychology, Psych of Women, or Research Methods in Political Science. Participants received a questionnaire on the first and last day of class, and for this study the pre and post-test scores for the Fabroni Scale of Ageism were examined. A mixed between-within subjects ANOVA indicated a significant main effect for time F(1,58) = 8.162, p<.006. Overall this result indicated that there was a significant reduction of ageism from the start of the semester to the end of the semester, which was expected. However, while the Time 1 to Time 2 scores for the “Intro to Gero” class showed a change towards a lower ageism score, this result was not significantly different from the other two classes. Possible reasons for this outcome are considered along with next steps for further analysis, and implications for how educators might approach incorporating information about older adults into their courses.
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