Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

The children of today will be the adults of tomorrow and thus their attitudes toward older people lay the ground for their future self-concept and psychological well-being. Understanding how young children perceive older people is thus of crucial importance in an ageing world. The literature suggests mixed findings regarding the existence of ageism among children, which may be an artifact of the diversity measures used. This chapter presents a literature review that assesses most of these measures to assess children’s attitudes regarding older people and the assorted findings. We propose a classification based on two criteria: (i) the dimensions covered – cognitive, affective and behavioral (tripartite model of attitudes) and (ii) the four automaticity features (consciousness, controllability, intentionality and efficacy) which together led us to classify measures into three categories: solely explicit, solely implicit and partially both explicit and implicit measures. Based on this categorization, we delineate distinct patterns of results, associated with the participant’s age. In studies using explicit measures or a combination of both explicit and implicit measures, children revealed more positive or mixed attitudes regarding older people. The most positive attitudes were found in studies with older children and adolescents (e.g. using the ”). When implicit measures were used, a different pattern of results emerged. Children expressed negative attitudes toward older people across childhood (e.g. behavioral measure). Based on this pattern of evidence, we make recommendations regarding the improvement of measures to assess children’s attitudes toward older people at different points in their social development.

Although ageism is prevalent in many forms, one significant manifestation is in and through common discourse. Discourse is not a neutral entity, but is the social construction of ideas based on culture, values and beliefs which are entrenched in practices such as ordinary narratives. As such, discourse is imbued with attitudes and such attitudes have consequences in terms of how we act in everyday life. This chapter draws on methodologies within discourse analysis to demonstrate how ageism is constructed and reconstructed in everyday conversations. Using two published studies related to older people in Ireland and Israel, this chapter uses selected methodologies within discourse analysis as two lenses into ageist discourses, challenging legitimized and dominant systems of representation of older people. In combining different philosophical approaches within discourse analysis, namely Foucauldian discourse analysis and discursive psychology, this chapter examines the conditions on which ageism is produced, sustained and reproduced within taken for granted ‘truths’ of older people. The chapter articulates how ageist identities are created, thus underpinning their legitimization in society and also how individuals can position and socially construct older people in an ageist frame through narratives.