Children's Perception of Aged Persons and Grandparents

Because results with regard to children's perception of the elderly contradict each other, it is necessary to differentiate between several groups of subjects, different groups of aged stimulus persons and various dimensions of the image or concept formed. In this study an investigation is made of the characteristics and quality of the image children have of aged persons in general and of their grandparents. A sample of 114 second-, fourth-and sixth-graders, boys and girls, drew successively an aged man and woman and their grandfather and grandmother. Those figures are examined and compared with regard to the richness of the drawings (the number of characteristics drawn) and number of deficit and old age life style characteristics. An analysis of variance is made in order to examine the influence and interaction of two between-subject variables - sex (S) and age of child (A) -and two within-subject variables - sex (Ssp) and kinship of stimulus person (K). Relating to the richness of the drawings, S, A, and K show a principal effect, in relating to the proportion of deficit characteristics there is a principal influence of S, A, K and Ssp. Ssp and K show a principal effect relating to the old age life style characteristics. Some specific characteristics are more often used for one or two figures, or more often used by boys or girls, second-, fourth-or sixth-graders.