Authors: Brina FELC, Zlata FELC.
Attitudes towards negative stereotypes about older people have their roots in childhood, develop through adolescence and lead to ageism. The current study investigated how many adolescents have heard of ageism and if their age affects their attitude towards negative stereotypes about older people. In the year 2022, 188 secondary school students (aged 15–19, Mean 16.9, SD = 1.37) participated in an online survey about their familiarity with ageism and attitude towards negative stereotypes about older people. Out of all 188 respondents, only 35 of those with an older relative (18.6%) were familiar with ageism (p=0.039). Of these 35 respondents, 11 of them (31.4%) learned about ageism at school, 5 (14.3%) in the media, 4 (11.4%) at home and 4 (11.4%) on the Internet. Further, the majority, i.e. from 33.9% to 59.6% of younger respondents (aged 15 - 17) and 35% to 59.5% of older ones (aged 18 - 19) expressed a neutral attitude towards negative stereotypes about older people. Furthermore, 8.3% to 44.0% of younger and even 10.1% to 50.6% of older respondents agreed with negative stereotypes about older people. A higher proportion of younger respondents agreed than older ones (28.4 % vs.17.7 %) agreed with statement that older people accept innovations (p=0.032). Due to the insufficiently small and unrepresentative sample of the study population, the findings of the research can only be generalized to the population of students of the two secondary schools that participated in research, and to the population of Slovenian adolescents only conditionally. Already in the early period of adolescence it is necessary to carry out preventive activities to reduce ageism, such as quality intergenerational contacts combined with formal and informal educational programs about ageism and aging, in which older people with a positive view of aging would actively participate.
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