Publication Date

1987

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Zimmerman, M. Nadine

Degree Name

M.S. Ed. (Master of Education)

Legacy Department

Department of Physical Education

LCSH

Children--Attitudes; Older people; Children and the aged

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether children's attitudes toward senior citizens will change after experiencing an intergenerational social and physical activity program, “Growing Older and Liking It." A secondary purpose was to compare the attitudes of boys and girls toward senior citizens. Forty-eight students (26 girls and 22 boys) and 15 senior citizens participated in the study. Fourth- and fifth-grade subjects were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group. Attitudes of the children were assessed by the Children's Attitudes Toward the Elderly Test (CATE). The test was administered individually and included three separate sections: Word Association (WA), Semantic Differential (SD), and Concept of Age (CA). Subjects in each group were tested after the 7-week intergenerational social and physical activity program. The program consisted of 14 sessions, each 40 minutes in length. Data collected for each group were assessed by a 2 x 2 analysis of variance. Results indicated a significant difference in favor of the attitudes of the control group as measured by the WA section, F̲(1, 44) = 18.45, p̲ < .01. No significant differences were found in the SD and CA sections. The results of this study demonstrate that this 7-week intergenerational social and physical activity program which was introduced in an elementary school setting did not improve the attitudes that children already had regarding senior citizens.

Comments

Bibliography: pages [48]-50.

Extent

vii, 77 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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