Contact With and Perceptions of the Elderly

Abstract

The equivocal relationship between contact with and perceptions of the elderly obtained in previous research is attributed to limitations in the way contact has been assessed. A 57-item questionnaire tapping a wide variety of aspects of contact, a 3-dimension measure of attitudes toward and perceptions of the elderly, and a test of knowledge about aging were administered to 110 undergraduates. Multiple regression analyses identified several aspects of quality of contact with the elderly that reliably predicted attitudes toward and perceptions of them.