Ageism and Attitudes Towards the Aged Among Ghanaians

Abstract

Attitudes towards the aged comprise feelings, cognitions, and behaviours linked to how individuals relate to older adults. Although the social understanding of relating to the aged have been established in studies, the psychological predictors of these attitudes have not been studied in Ghana. This study assessed the ageism and attitudes towards the aged.

The study was a quantitative study which sampled 323 participants. The present study examined the reasons why adults have certain attitudes and perceptions about the aged. The study investigated this objective from the social and psychological points of view. The study used an explanatory mixed-methods design. The study started with a quantitative study which consisted of 323 participants who were recruited from selected areas in the Greater Accra region. Data was collected using measures of ageism, attitudes towards the aged, fear of old people (FOP). The quantitative data was analysed using multivariate and regression analysis. The results showed that sociodemographic factors such as education and age individually play a role in ageism and attitudes towards the aged, respectively. The study also found that positive ageism reduces negative attitudes towards the aged, whilst negative ageism is linked with undesirable attitudes towards the aged.