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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 9, No. 11

Publication Date: November 25, 2022

DOI:10.14738/assrj.911.13343. Kitiashvili, A. (2022). Ageist Attitudes, Stereotypes and Behavior of Youth Towards the Elderly Within Georgia: How Significant are

Intergenerational Contact and Perceived Distance? Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(11). 283-300.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Ageist Attitudes, Stereotypes and Behavior of Youth Towards the

Elderly Within Georgia: How Significant are Intergenerational

Contact and Perceived Distance?

Anastasia Kitiashvili

Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Tbilisi State University

ABSTRACT

Georgia has an aging society, with a high percentage of senior citizens in the general

population. However, only small number of research studies in the Georgian

context have been conducted to ascertain young people's attitudes towards older

adults. The study of age-related phenomena is important both from a scientific

point of view and for developing awareness-raising interventions and social policy.

The current study investigates young people's explicit and implicit ageist attitudes,

stereotypes and behaviors towards the elderly. We consider whether perceived

distance from older people and intergenerational contact exert an influence on

these variables. The research instruments were first translated from English into

Georgian and adapted to the local context using 150 young people as initial

respondents. The survey research was then carried out with 450 respondents,

employing convenience sampling in Tbilisi. Research has shown that young people

express more positive than negative explicit attitudes toward the elderly while

implicit measures also reveal ingrained negative attitudes. Most stereotypes about

older people feature lower expectations regarding physical and mental health, but

especially concerning cognitive function. Young people stereotypically perceive

older people as warm and kind, but with limited cognitive capacity. These

stereotypes are more relevant to the “pity’ category identified in the Stereotype

Content Model (SCM) representing a ‘pseudo-positive’ attitude toward older people

and they tend to result in infantilizing behavior, i.e., not letting aged people take

responsibility for their own lives. With increased perceived distance from older

people, the frequency of intergenerational contact decreases. Similarly, younger

people who harbor more robust explicit ageist attitudes toward older people

frequently seek to increase perceived distance and minimize their contact with the

elderly. More ageist attitudes are related to more ageist behaviours. Regression

analysis shows that explicit attitudes have the strongest influence on ageist

behavior followed by perceived distance, intergenerational contact and

stereotypes. The current study can provide a basis for further research on this

concept.

Keywords: young people, older people, stereotypes, explicit attitudes, implicit attitudes,

ageist behavior.

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 9, Issue 11, November-2022

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

INTRODUCTION

Current global demographic changes, such as increasing life expectancy and decreasing birth

rates, lead to a growth in the share of the world's aged population, known as "population aging".

Aging is a natural phenomenon, but attitudes toward aging are often ambivalent and hostile

towards older adults. For example, from a sample of 99 traits that American undergraduates

attributed to older adults, only one/third were positive (Schmidt and Boland, 1986).

Negative perceptions of old age make seniors feel more vulnerable and prevent them from

successfully coping with aging. In general, negative attitudes towards the aged diminish the

self-efficacy of the elderly population (Levy, 1996), their optimism (Gallagher & Lopez, 2009)

and consequently their well-being. In contrast, studies show that positive attitudes toward

aging are associated with better mental and physical health and well-being among the elderly

(Steverink et al., 2001; Lyons et al., 2017). Older people with high self-efficacy are more

physically active, more satisfied with their lives, and have fewer depressive symptoms

(Luszcynska et al., 2005). Kim (2013).

Aging is often associated with the gradual deterioration of the biological processes and the

increasing limitation of mental functions, a process ending in death. Consequently, there is a

stereotypical notion that old age is the end-of-life stage when people are sick, weak, dependent

on others, slow-moving, poor or lonely. Although older people are different from each other,

they are still considered by many to be one homogeneous group (Schaefer, 1983, Rychtaříková,

2019), with unfavorable status in many societies, leading to age-related stereotypes, negative

attitudes, and discrimination.

Stereotypes and ageism differ, people with positive attitudes toward older people can still

display negative stereotypes of older people when conversing with them. An example is the two

main types of communication: over-accommodation and baby talk. During over- accommodation, young people speak overly politely, slowly and loudly, consistent with the

stereotype that older people have hearing problems or cognitive slowing (Kite ME, Wagner LS,

2002). Baby talk is simplified speech with exaggerated intonation (Caporael L; Culbertson G,

1986). Some older people have a positive attitude towards this kind of speech as it is easy to

understand, while the older people with high cognitive and social functioning consider such

treatment humiliating (Giles H, Fox S, Harwood J, Williams, A, 1996). These forms of

communication reflect a tendency to diminish the autonomy of the elderly to take responsibility

for their lives (Fiske et al. 2002; Cuddy et al. 2005).

In a short period after the introduction of the concept of ageism, the research of this concept

expanded considerably in terms of the development of theoretical background as well as

empirical measures. However, there is still little research on age-related attitudes, stereotypes,

and behaviors toward older people in Georgia. Georgia is a nation with an aging population and

the share of the older population is systematically increasing; elderly make up 15.4 % of the

Georgian population in 2021 (Geostat, 2021), while in 2000 it was 12.9%, 2010 - 14.1%.

However, based on the local studies, we can assume that the aging of the nation in Georgia

should not be caused by the high standard of living of the elderly in the country (Sumbadze et

al., 2020), but rather due to current demographic changes, such as decreasing birth rate, high

percentages of Georgian labor migration among adults of working age.