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 Researchers in Belgium asked 1,151 youth ranging in age from 7 to 16
years about the time they spent with grandparents as well as their
opinions about aging and the elderly. They found that kids who saw
their grandparents at least weekly and described these interactions
as happy were much less likely to express ageist views.
“Previous research had suggested that frequency of contacts with the
elderly (time spent together) had no effect on children’s attitudes
towards older people, whereas a high quality of contact positively
influenced these attitudes,” said lead study author Allison Flamion
of the University of Liege.
But most of this research was done in university students, not in
children and teens, Flamion said by email.
“The children in our study described their relationship with their
grandparents very openly, as they perceived it,” Flamion said. “We
were somewhat surprised to find such a strong correlation between
the children’s perception of grandparents’ contacts and the ageist
stereotypes turning up in the questionnaires.”
In questionnaires, the researchers asked the youths about the health
of their own grandparents, how often the two generations met and how
the young people felt about their relationships with their
grandparents.
In general, views on the elderly expressed by the children and
adolescents were neutral or positive.
Girls had slightly more positive views than boys, and girls also
tended to view their own aging more favorably, the researchers
report in Child Development.
Ageist stereotypes appeared to change at various points in
childhood, the study also found.
The youngest children, from 7 to 9 years old, expressed the most
prejudice and kids from 10 to 12 years old had the most acceptance
and tolerance.
Teenagers had more prejudiced notions about aging than pre-teens,
but not as much as the youngest children in the study.
Grandparents' health may also influence how children think about
aging, the study suggests.
Young people with grandparents in poor health were more likely to
believe negative stereotypes about the elderly than children and
teens with healthier grandparents.
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The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether
or how time with grandparents might impact children’s views on
aging.
Even so, the current study offers fresh evidence that both the
frequency and quality of contact with grandparents matters in
shaping how children think about age, said Tara Lineweaver, a
psychology researcher at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana,
who wasn’t involved in the study.
“The quality of the time children spent with their grandparents
mattered most when they also spent more time with their
grandparents,” Lineweaver said by email.
“What I found most valuable and most surprising about their results
is that the influence of quality interactions with grandparents was
greatest in middle childhood (ages 10-12), when attitudes are
already most positive, suggesting that good relationships with
grandparents may help explain the positive beliefs about aging that
typically accompany this stage of development,” Lineweaver added.
Growing evidence also suggests that contact between grandchildren
and grandparents can be good for both, said Dominic Abrams, a
psychology researcher at the University of Kent, in the UK.
“More time that is enjoyable and positive really makes the biggest
difference. I think there are several ways that this works,” Abrams,
who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.
“From a strong positive relationship they are more likely to learn
things about older people that they might not otherwise have
discovered such as their strengths, abilities, breadth of
experience, and that they have a range of emotions and knowledge,”
Abrams added. “Second, they may meet other older people whilst with
their grandparents, giving them greater awareness of other older
people in general and making ageing and oldness less strange and
perhaps less frightening to the extent that grandparents are able to
explain and share their experiences.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2CREe9S Child Development, online December 19,
2017.
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