The Effect of an Intergenerational Choir Performance on Audience Members’ Attitudinal Statements Toward Teens and Older Persons

Abstract

High school students and older persons served as audience subjects in the present study. Subjects were divided into four groups based on age (teen or senior) and gender (male or female). Participants were pretested using the Age Group Evaluation and Description (AGED) Inventory to determine their pre-existing attitudes toward four groups: teen males, teen females, senior males, and senior females. Following the pretest, audience members observed an hour-long live performance of an established intergenerational choir, and then completed a posttest assessment using the same attitudinal scale. Results indicated that the attitudes of male and female teen subjects toward teens and toward seniors, both male and female, moved in a positive direction from pretest to posttest. Male and female seniors’ attitudes toward seniors and teens, both male and female, made significant gains in a positive direction from the pretest to the posttest.