Children's attitudes towards aging people-validation of an instrument

Abstract

Purpose It is essential to develop and improve instruments that measure and assess children's attitudes towards the elderly. Despite the degree of questions related to this topic, no tools validated for the Portuguese population on the subject were found in the literature. Consequently, this study aimed to translate and validate a scale designed to assess children’s attitudes towards the elderly (Todaro Scale) for the Portuguese population. Design and methods The method recommended by the literature for psychometric validation and evaluation of instruments was followed. In the conception of the study, the following stages were followed: translation of the ‘‘Todaro Scale’’, translation and back-translation by an independent translator, validation by an expert panel, pre-test and validation of the questionnaire, and testing the scale measurement properties. The convenience sample comprised 60 children between the ages of 4 and 6, of Portuguese nationality and residents of Portugal. Results The results obtained in the reliability and validity tests reveal a good internal consistency. The 14 items of the scale, and after the use of principal component analysis, there were grouped into five dimensions: social participation, personality characteristics; Health and Safety, physical and instrumental; cognitive and social appreciation. Conclusions The psychometric study confirms that the ‘‘Galvão Scale: children’s attitudes towards the elderly’’ includes the essential indicators and dimensions to ensure an adequate assessment of children’s attitudes towards the elderly. Practice implications: we believe this research could become an indispensable contribution to analysing, monitoring, and intervening to demystify existing ageing stereotypes.