Antecedents of baccalaureate student nurses' attitudes toward the elderly

The relationship between certain psychosocial characteristics of 122 baccalaureate nursing students and their attitudes toward the elderly was determined using multiple stepwise regression. Collectively the psychosocial characteristics accounted for 11-14% of the variance in attitude scores on four of the seven attitude dimensions, specifically, realistic toughness toward the elderly, anxiety about ageing, family responsibility and unfavourable stereotyping of the elderly.