Perceptions of the elderly among nursing home aides of three black cultural groups

The Perceptions of the Elderly Scale (PES) was administered to a sample of 246 aides working in nursing homes in the New York Metropolitan Area. The aides represented three Black American cultural groups: African Americans, English-speaking Caribbean Blacks (including Jamaicans, Trinidadians, and Barbadians) and Haitians. Members of these groups make up the overwhelming majority of nursing home aides in New York City. The results indicated that aides from all three groups had generally favorable attitudes toward the elderly, but the English-speaking Caribbean groups expressed significantly more favorable attitudes than aides in either of the two other groups. The observed differences were attributed to the traditional role of the older individual within West Indian culture as disciplinarian and authority figure. Implications for in-service education are discussed.