Older Adults' Multiple Stereotypes of Young Adults

Abstract

Although the nature of younger adults' attitudes toward older adults has been researched extensively, there are long-neglected questions regarding older adults' views of young adults. In the first phase of this three phase study, community dwelling seniors generated traits they believed characterized young people. In the second phase, a subsample of the original participants sorted the traits into groups that could be found in one and the same young person. Fifteen stereotypes appeared when these results were submitted to hierarchical cluster analysis. In the final phase, a subsample of the original older adult participants rated how typical each of the stereotypes was of younger people. As well, each of the stereotypes were rated using an abbreviated version of Kogan and Wallach's (1961) semantic differential scale. Results indicate that the stereotypes older people hold of younger people are generally more positive than negative. Further, the positive stereotypes are viewed as more typical of younger adults than are the negative stereotypes.

On the origins of ageism among older and younger adults

“…The few studies that have included older as well as younger participants found that stereotypes about typical younger adults are often more positive than negative and independent of the participants' own age (Matheson et al, 2000). However, stereotypes that the latter have about younger adults have been studied primarily indirectly, with younger targets serving as a control group for the older adults who serve as targets of interest to be evaluated.…”

Intergenerational potential: Effects of social interaction between older adults and adolescents.

“…Even more important, the very few studies that have addressed the investigation of "young-age stereotypes" have provided evidence that adolescence/young adulthood is not a category that is as equally salient as the old-age stereotypes (probably as, at least until recently, adolescents and young adults clearly presented the societal majority). Rather, older adults' mental representations of and judgments about adolescents appear to be neither strongly negative nor strongly positive, but rather neutral and balanced (Matheson, Collins, & Kuehne, 2000;Pinquart & Schoenbrodt, 1997). self-reports on the Neuroticism scale of the German version of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (Borkenau & Ostendorf, 1989), older participants were in the normal, healthy range for their age (M ϭ 2.3, SD ϭ 0.62).…”

Seeing Eye-to-Eye: Do Intergroup Biases Operate Similarly for Younger and Older Adults?

“…The small amount of research that has examined older people's feelings toward young adults is only partially consistent with the notion of attenuation of age-based biases. For example, Matheson, Collins, and Kuehne (2000) examined older adults' stereotypes of younger adults and found that seniors held multiple stereotypes of young adults, with more stereotypes being positive than negative.…”