Estereotipos sobre el envejecimiento según el periodo del desarrollo y el género
Sandino Forero, Juliana
Continuous growth of life expectancy in Colombia and the world, has started to invert the population pyramid due to the increasing number of older people. This is one of the reasons why it is important to know the different aspects of aging, including stereotypes. To date, there’s few research related to the correlation between gender, developmental stages and adults aging stereotypes. Levy (2009) found that young people hold more negative stereotypes about aging because they are likely to think that old age is far from their current reality and do not consider it a personal threat. In addition, Bodner, Bergman and Cohen (2012), found that men hold more negative stereotypes about aging than women do. The purpose of this study is to describe the correlation of developmental stage and gender on aging stereotypes in 860 Colombian adults. The aging stereotypes variable was estimated using Ramirez y Palacios (2015) measure. Developmental stage and gender were registered using a sociodemographic questionnaire. Results suggest that there is no relationship between negative stereotyping and gender, developmental stage or the interaction between the two. Instead, significant differences were found between the positive stereotyping, gender and developmental stage. Further research on this area is recommended given that the way we relate to them will be decisive to help them have a better aging process in the future.