Impact of Ageism and Empathy on Attitudes towards Older Adults among University Students

Abstract

Understanding how young people view and engage with elders has become more crucial due to the world's aging population. Based on Social Identity Theory, the study proposed that ageism, reflecting age-based social categorization, would negatively predict attitudes toward older adults, whereas empathy, which weakens ingroup-outgroup boundaries, would positively predict such attitudes. The present study looked at the relationships and prediction of ageism and empathy for attitudes of the university students to older people. The research design that was used was cross sectional with correlational approach. The subject of the research was 200 university students as convenience sampling, consisted of 56% male and 44% female with age range between 18 and 25. Three instruments Fraboni Scale of Ageism (FSA), Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) and Relating to Old People Evaluation (ROPE) scale were used to collect data. Pearson correlation analysis revealed that all the variables had strong relationships to each other. Ageism has positive relationship with negative attitudes towards older persons (r =.494, p <.01), negative relationship with empathy (r = −.228, p <.01) and negative relationship with negative attitudes (r =-.491, p <.01). The multiple regression analysis showed that ageism and empathy accounted for 39.5% (R2 =.395, F(2, 197) = 64.188, p <.001) of the variance in attitudes towards older people. Ageism (β =.403, p <.001) and empathy (β = −.399, p <.001) emerged as comparable and significant predictors. Notably, ageist sentiments persisted among students despite Pakistan's strong cultural and religious norms of respecting seniors, implying that cultural values alone may not be enough to eliminate age-based prejudice.