Children's Perceptions of Ageing

Children’s Perceptions of Ageing[1]

“From an early age, children are on the way to developing diverse and complex social perceptions of age.  As our review indicates, children’s age attitudes entail differential feelings, beliefs, and behavioral expectations about older adults and their stereotypes differ along several dimensions.  Children typically perceive typically perceive older adults negatively along dimensions that reflect their activity and potency, and sometimes their affect, whereas they more often perceive older adults positively along evaluative dimensions that reflect their social goodness.   Contrary to the common expectation that attitudes differ cross-culturally, research suggests that children’s negative attitudes toward older adults are universal. However children’s attitudes do vary with their age and social class and with older adult’s gender.  The question remains as to what mechanisms account for children’s attitudes.

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[1]  Material of this post was gathered from the book; Ageism: Stereotyping and prejudice against older persons. Page 93.  ISBN 0-262-14077-2  I was edited by Todd D. Nelson  It's and excellent book.