A Study of Stereotypes and Social Perceptions of Older Adults on Learning in Old Age

Main Article Content

Doris Marcela Castro-Roldán, María Jesús Yolanda Colmenero-Ruiz

Abstract

The aging process and the old age of human beings have become topics of special interest in today's societies and present limited research, evidencing the lack of analytical interest in the subject. The general objective was to determine the negative stereotypes and social perceptions in a group of older adults about learning in old age, in the light of the right to lifelong education. The study was carried out in Colombia, in the only local government Day Care Center for the Elderly, located in Chía, Municipality of Cundinamarca. The research design was mixed, non-experimental, transactional, and exploratory, using as instruments a questionnaire of negative stereotypes (CENVE) towards old age, validated with Cronbach's alpha of 0.97, and its application showed that 63.8% were stigmatized. On the other hand, it was found that 86.4% of participants are peasants. An Ad Hoc interview was conducted and validated through the “Delphi Method” with a Kappa of Cohen=1, where it was shown that 100% believe that they can learn, but do not have greater facilities. Crosses were made between the CENVE and the sociodemographic data with an association level of chi-square = 0.996 and its moderate intensity was V Cramer p = 0.338. It was concluded that the participants present high levels of negative stereotypes, however, most of them want and believe that they can learn. The most relevant factor was character-personality, then health, and finally motivational-social. Finally, an informative-educational virtual booklet “It is never too late to learn and old age is the best time” was prepared to leave a virtual tool for future research and to ratify the benefits established in this study.

Article Details

Section
Articles