Children's attitudes toward the elderly: a cross-cultural comparison

In order to test the hypothesis that children's negative attitudes toward the elderly are unique to the culture of the United States, attitudes of children toward the elderly in four diverse cultures were compared. The Semantic Differential subtest of the CATE (Children's Attitudes Toward the Elderly, 1976) was administered to samples of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children drawn from the Native Alaskan population of the Aleutian Island (n = 29); mainland United States (n = 60); Australia (n = 39); and Ascunion, Paraguay (n = 69). T statistics were used to compare scores on the total SD for the concept OLD and YOUNG PEOPLE within each culture. Analysis of variance was used to determine differences in attitudes toward the elderly between cultures on the total score of the SD for the concepts OLD and YOUNG PEOPLE, and for analysis of individual items of the SD. The results indicate that children in the Aleutian Islands, Paraguay, and Australia rated young people more positively than they did old people, while children in mainland United States rated old and young people similarly. There were no differences between the cultures in the children's rating of the concept OLD PEOPLE, as measured by the total score of the SD, but children in the Aleutian Islands rated old people more negatively than those in the other cultures on several items of the SD. Children in Australia rated the concept YOUNG PEOPLE more positively than did children in other cultures. The conclusion is reached that negative attitudes toward the elderly are not unique to the United States, but may be more universal to the human experience.