COMPARISON OF ATTITUDES AND STEREOTYPES TOWARDS THE ELDERLY AND EXPECTATIONS ABOUT AGEING: THE ROLE OF AGE AND CONTACT

The aim of this research is to examine the differences in attitudes towards the elderly, and the differences in sets of stereotypes and expectations related to ageing in groups of persons of early and late adulthood, as well as to assess the effects of quality and quantity of contact with the elderly on attitudes towards them. The research was conducted on a representative sample of participants in late (n = 96; 60-75 years) and early (n = 122; 18-25 years) adulthood. The average age of participants in late adulthood was 67.52 (SD = 4.73), whereas the average age of participants in early adulthood was 21.14 (SD =1.59) years. The results have shown that the two groups do not differ in their attitudes towards the elderly, i.e. that both groups have mildly positive attitudes towards the group. Furthermore, expectations of tuccessful" ageing are more positive in the younger group, and those participants who have better contact with their grandparents also have more positive attitudes towards the elderly. The stereotypes that the two groups have towards the elderly were investigated by means of hierarchical cluster analysis. The results show that there are three stereotypes in the early adulthood group and four stereotypes in the late adulthood group. Their comparison revealed the existence of a conceptual overlap of three sets of stereotypes, designated on the basis of their characteristics as "perfect grandmother/grandfather',' "ageing well" and "neighbour".