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Nulyu'. 3.,” >3 “gilt-A. 3' . - xv ”9‘33“ :3.- U'C....‘;‘ --m-:.‘..:.-\ «fin. A»; 1} ”TA.:~A‘;‘ N L :0. Hu~y OML'L {in fi'~.‘l-h.(y. ‘:‘ 5:35:23? ‘1‘}? N; - W’ ' ‘ v- ‘f .‘393 “a": h“ - ~.§‘.‘.. "IV _'A.‘; \tg‘fi .. LIBRARY ' Michigan State University This is to certify that the thesis entitled CHILDREN'S PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS presented by Lillian Aotaki Phenice has been accepted toWards fulfillment of the requirements for p ., .., Ph.D. Family Ecology degree in _ , .7 7/ Major professor Date September 11, 1978 . 0-7639 OVERDUE FINES ARE 25¢ PER DAY PER ITEM Return to book drop to remove this checkout from your record. EMU M 1 l. a CHILDREN'S PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS BY Lillian Aotaki Phenice A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Family Ecology 1978 (Q ABSTRACT CHILDREN'S PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS BY Lillian Adtaki Phenice The objective of this study was to answer basic questions regarding children's perceptions of elderly persons. The responses of preschool children enrolled in a day care center with a foster grandparent program were compared with the responses of preschool children enrolled in day care facilities which did not have elderly aides present. Two methodological procedures of analyses were used: descriptive discussions as well as objective sig- nificance tests. The sample consisted of forty-four parent—child dyads. The responses of twenty-two preschool children enrolled in a day care facility with an on-going foster grandparent program and their parents were compared with twenty-two children selected from day care centers with- out elderly persons or parents present. The design of this study was based on the static group comparison. The data were collected by the use of a child interview and a parent questionnaire. Statistical Lillian Aotaki Phenice procedures used to test the differences were the Kendall tau, Wilcoxen t test, Wilcoxen matched t test, sign pro- file pattern, cross tabulations, and means. The signifi- cance level was set at .05 for tests using inferential statistics. Descriptive data were also used to further evaluate the data. Using inferential statistics, it was found that children enrolled in the Foster Grandparent Day Care Pro— gram and children in regular day care facilities did not differ in their perceptions of elderly persons; neither did the groups differ statistically in their variety of perceptions nor the amount of contact with elderly persons. However, the children did differ in their feelings about getting old. More children in regular day care units expressed their feelings as "bad" when they viewed the projects of getting old than children in the Foster Grandparent Program. Children's perceptions of grandparents and per- ceptions of elderly persons showed no relationship on the semantic differential except for one dimension--friendly- unfriendly. The scores on this bipolar adjective showed that children's perceptions of grandparents were in agree- ment with children's perceptions of elderly persons. Children's perceptions about elderly persons were not significantly different from parental perceptions of elderly persons. There were tendencies for agreement in Lillian Aotaki Phenice relationships in four out of ten bipolar items. Results indicate that parents influence children's perceptions of elderly persons. Using descriptive analyses, it was found that although children have little knowledge of older people in our society, children who had the most contact with elderly persons were able to describe and discuss more things they could do with and for elderly persons than children who had least contact. The children used sur- face cues, basically physical and behavioral, to classify and categorize elderly persons. There was a mixture of positive and realistic, as well as negative, perceptions of elderly persons. The descriptive data showed that children's perceptions of elderly persons are egocentric. The perceptions are not just a matter of stereotypes that the child has been influenced by, but also involve some previous understanding of the elderly person's role. DEDICATION To my daughters, Vashti and Michiko, for their enduring enthusiasm through treasured and guilded time. To someone special who first inspired me and saw a potential. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My appreciation is extended to all my advisory committee members: Dr. Eileen Earhart, Dr. Verna Hilde- brand, Dr. Beatrice Paolucci, Dr. Margaret Bubolz, and Dr. Bernard Gallin. A special note of thanks is extended to Dr. Verna Hildebrand who served as my advisory com- mittee chairperson and who guided me throughout the dur- ation of my graduate career. I would also like to express my thanks to Dr. Iwao Ishino for his kind assistance and advice at a crucial moment in my career. However, my most sincere gratitude and appreciation go to Dr. Eileen Earhart who served as my dissertation advisor and acting chairperson for the duration of this research. She willingly gave of her undivided support, assistance, and time. Thanks also go to the teachers, directors, chil- dren, and parents who participated in this study. Appreciation is extended to my officemates in room 406, especially Gayle Clapp, Ann Soderman, and Trellis Waxler, who eased the pangs of chronic anxieties with their helpful comments and stimulating humor. iii Special thanks to my daughters, Vashti and Michiko, for the many pleasant warm suppers that greeted my late homecomings. A special feeling of gratitude goes to my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Aotaki, for their encouragement and moral support. iv I. II. III. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . Statement of the Problem . . . . . Need for the Study . . . . . . . Objectives . . . . . . . . . . Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . Assumptions. . . . . . . Limitations of the Study . . . . . Conceptual Definitions . . . . . . Conceptual Orientation . . . . . Overview. . . . . . . . . . REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE . . . . . . The Development of Social Cognition. . Social Psychological Theory of Person Perception . . . . . . Interrelationships of Person Perception and Cognitive Abilities . . The Effects of Age on the Child' 3 Per— ceptions of Adults. . . Effects of Sex on the Child's Perception of Adults. . . Research Related to Children' s Attitudes Toward the Elderly. . . . . . . Summary . . . . . . . . . . . PROCEDURE . . . . . . . . . . . Selection of Subjects . . . . . . Selection and Description of Instruments Children's Attitudes Toward the Elderly Instrument (CATE). . . . Subtest I--Word Association . . . Section l--Cognitive Component . Section 2--Affective Component . Section 3--Behavioral Component . Administration of the Open-Ended Questions . . . . . . . V Page 27 29 31 32 33 36 36 40 40 41 41 43 44 45 Subtest II--Semantic Differential . Validity and Reliability of the Semantic Differential . . . Administration of the Semantic Differential . . . . . . Subtest III--Concrete Representation . Section I . . . . . . . . . Section II . . . . . . . Validity and Reliability . . . . Administration. . . . . . . . Parent Questionnaire . . . . . . . Administration . . . . . . . . Design of the Study . . . . . . . . Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . IV. DESCRIPTION AND DISCUSSION OF SUBJECTS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT. . . . . . . . . The Contextual Conditions of the Children. Profile of Families . . . . . . . Profile of Grandparents . . . . . Children's Experiences with Other Elderly Persons . . . . . . . . Assessment of Elderly-Child Inter- action in Different Settings . . . Child's Indirect Experiences with Elderly Persons 0 O O O O O O O O O I Parents' Attitudes Toward Elderly Persons 0 O I O C C O O O O 0 Discussion of Findings on Parental Attitudes . . . . . . . . . Parent-Child Interaction Before a Visit. vi Page 46 47 47 48 48 49 49 49 50 50 51 52 53 56 56 56 58 65 67 74 75 75 80 Page To Grandparents . . . . . . . . 80 To Neighbors . . . . . . . 81 Comparison of Visit Preparation. . . 82 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 V. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS. . . . 86 Hypothesis 1 . . . . . . . 86 Hypothesis 2 . . . . . . . 9O Hypothesis 3 . . . . . . . . 93 Hypothesis 4 . . . . . . . . . . 94 Hypothesis 5 . . . . . . . . . . 96 Additional Statistical Tests to Further Evaluate the Data . . . . . . . 98 Cross Tabulation. . . . 98 Sign Test of the Profile Pattern . . 98 Hypothesis 6 . . . . . . . . . . 110 Additional Information . . . . . . 111 Sign Test of the Profile Pattern . . 111 Kendall's tau Correlational Technique. 113 Cross Tabulations . . . . . . . 114 Hypothesis 7 . . . . . . . . . . 115 Hypothesis 8 . . . . . . . . . . 115 Additional Information . . . . . . 127 Word Association Subtest Answers . . 128 Findings on the Word Association Subtest . . . . . . . 129 Findings on the Subtest--Concrete Representations. . . . . . . 130 Discussion of Findings. . . . . . 132 VI. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS . . 134 Descriptive Conclusions. . . . . . . 137 What Do Children Know About Elderly Persons? . . . . . . . . . . 137 vii How Do Children Feel About Elderly Persons? . . What Contacts Do Children Have with Elderly Persons? . . . . Implications for Future Research . Research Related Closely to This Study 0 O O O O O O I 0 Research Related to Increasing the Knowledge Base . . . . . . Implication for Practical Use APPENDICES A. TEST INSTRUMENTS . . . . . . . B. INTRODUCTORY MATERIALS . . . . . C. CODE BOOK . . . . . . . . . SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . viii Page 138 139 141 141 142 144 146 166 168 175 4.12 4.13 LIST OF TABLES RACE AND SEX OF CHILDREN . . . . . AGES AND RELATIONSHIP OF THE RESPONDENTS FILLING IN THE PARENT QUESTIONNAIRE. . . MARITAL STATUS OF PARENTS . . . . . . EDUCATIONAL LEVEL OF PARENTS IN GROUP A AND GROUP B . . . . . . . . . . . . EMPLOYMENT STATUS OF PARENTS. . . . . . ESTIMATED TOTAL FAMILY YEARLY INCOME . . . SEX AND TOTAL NUMBER OF LIVING GRANDPARENTS. MARITAL STATUS OF CHILD'S GRANDPARENTS . . HEALTH STATUS OF CHILD'S GRANDPARENTS. . . TOTAL NUMBER OF TIMES CHILDREN SPEND WITH GRANDPARENTS . . . . . . . . . . TOTAL PERCENTAGES OF TIME CHILDREN SEE ELDERLY PERSONS BY SEX AND AGE . . . . CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY- CHILD INTERACTION IN PRESCHOOL/DAY CARE FOR A WEEK 0 O O O O O C O O O O 0 CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY- CHILD INTERACTION IN LIBRARY FOR A WEEK . CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY- CHILD INTERACTION IN CHURCH FOR A WEEK. . CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY- CHILD INTERACTION WITH NEIGHBOR FOR A WEEK ix Page 39 49 57 59 60 6O 62 62 63 64 66 68 69 7O 71 Table Page 4.14 CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY- CHILD INTERACTION WITH RELATIVES (OTHER THAN GRANDPARENTS) FOR A WEEK . . . . . 72 4.15 CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY- CHILD INTERACTION WITH MEDICAL PERSONNEL FOR A WEEK . . . . . . . . . . . 72 4.16 CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY- CHILD INTERACTION WITH A FRIEND FOR A WEEK. 73 4.17 CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY- CHILD INTERACTION WITH PEOPLE IN STORES OR MARKET PLACES FOR A WEEK. . . . . . . 73 4.18 TELEVISION SHOWS AND THE PERCENTAGES OF CHILDREN WHO WATCH THEM . . . . . . . 76 4.19 PARENTAL ATTITUDE SURVEY TOWARD ELDERLY PERSONS AND GRANDPARENTS (N=44) . . . . 77 5.1 RESULTS OF THE WILCOXEN t-TEST FOR SCORES OF GROUP A AND GROUP B ON THE SEMANTIC DIF- FERENTIALS ABOUT ELDERLY PERSONS N = 44. . 88 5.2 MEAN RESPONSES OF GROUP A AND GROUP B ON THE SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL ABOUT ELDERLY PERSONS O O O O O O O O O I O O 8 9 5.3 RESULTS OF THE WILCOXEN t-TEST FOR SCORES ON GROUP A AND GROUP B ON THE VARIETIES OF PERCEPTIONS ABOUT ELDERLY PERSONS. . . . 91 5.4 RANGE AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF CHILDREN'S RESPONSES ON THE VARIETY OF PERCEPTIONS ABOUT ELDERLY PERSONS. . . . . . . . 92 5.5 RESULTS OF THE WILCOXEN TEST FOR SCORES OF GROUP A AND GROUP B ON THE AMOUNT OF DIRECT CONTACT WITH ELDERLY PERSONS . . . 94 5.6 DISTRIBUTION OF SCORES FOR GROUP A AND GROUP B ON THE WORD ASSOCIATION SUBTEST ON FEEL- INGS ABOUT GETTING OLD . . . . . . . 95 5.7 KENDALL'S TAU C SHOWING CONCORDANCE ON CHIL- DREN'S PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY AND GRAND- PARENTS ON THE BIPOLAR ADJECTIVES OF THE SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL. . . . . . . . 97 Table Page 5.8 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, GOOD-BAD . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 5.9 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, HAPPY-SAD. . . . . . . . . . . . 100 5.10 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, RIGHT-WRONG . . . . . . . . . . . 101 5.11 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, WONDERFUL-TERRIBLE. . . . . . . . . 102 5.12 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, PRETTY-UGLY . . . . . . . . . . . 103 5.13 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, FRIENDLY-UNFRIENDLY . . . . . . . . 104 5.14 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, CLEAN-DIRTY . . . . . . . . . . . 105 5.15 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, RICH-POOR. . . . . . . . . . . . 106 5.16 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, HEALTHY-SICK. . . . . . . . . . . 107 5.17 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, HELPFUL-HARMFUL. . . . . . . . . . 108 xi Table Page 5.18 WILCOXEN MATCHED PAIRS t-TEST FOR PARENT- CHILD PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS . . . 111 5.19 KENDALL'S TAU C SHOWING "CONCORDANCE" ON CHILDREN'S PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS' AND PARENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 5.20 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, HELPFUL-HARMFUL . . . . . . . . . . 116 5.21 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, HEALTHY-SICK . . . . . . . . . . . 117 5.22 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, RICH-POOR . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 5.23 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, FRIENDLY-UNFRIENDLY. . . . . . . . . 119 5.24 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, CLEAN-DIRTY . . . . . . . . . . . 120 5.25 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, PRETTY-UGLY . . . . . . . . . . . 121 5.26 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, WONDERFUL-TERRIBLE . . . . . . . . . 122 5.27 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, RIGHT-WRONG . . . . . . . . . . . 123 xii Table Page 5.28 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, HAPPY-SAD . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 5.29 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, GOOD-BAD . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 5.30 THE MEAN PERCEPTUAL SCORES OF CHILDREN WHO HAVE MOST CONTACT AND LESS CONTACT. . . . 126 xiii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 3.1 A Static Group Comparison Design . . . . . 51 3.2 Methods Used in the Analyses of Data. . . . 54 5.1 Profile Comparison of Mean Responses of Pre- school Children in a Foster Grandparent Program (Group A) and Preschool Children in Regular Day Care Facilities (Group B) (p = .05) . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 5.2 The Sign Test of the Profile Pattern of Median Responses of Children's Perceptions of Elderly Persons and Grandparents (p = .00) . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 5.3 The Sign Test of the Profile Pattern of Median Responses of Children's Perceptions of Elderly Persons and Parental Perceptions of Elderly Persons . . . . . . . . . 112 5.4 Summary of Hypotheses Tested and the Decision Rule. 0 C O O C O O O O O O O O 133 xiv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem Almost three out of four older people in the United States have at least one living grandchild. Of those having grandchildren, four out of five have seen a grandchild during the past week; more than half have seen a grandchild in the last twenty-four hours (Cottrell, 1974). Cottrell (1974) suggests that when grandchildren are small, there is a good deal of satisfaction in playing the role of grandparent. As the grandparent ages, less satisfaction is involved. However, not much else is known about the reciprocal relationships between the younger and older generations. The boundaries are not well marked in studying the "old," but as is true of many of the words we com— monly use, the adjectives and nouns mean a great many different things to different people. Perceptions of the aged are, then, varied and no generalization should be accepted without knowing who said what about whom. It is important to recognize that much depends upon the one making the assessment. Young children may perceive older people differently than do adolescents or adults. An investigation in the area of children's perceptions of elderly persons can provide researchers with insights into the nature of intergenerational reciprocities. A recent study by Jantz, Seefeldt, Galper, and Serock (1976) showed that children's attitudes toward the elderly are stereotyped and complex. Frequently, the children rejected the elderly on the basis of physical and behavioral stereotypes. Children viewed the elderly as a group of wrinkled, sad, helpless, funny looking, and passive people who are unable to care for themselves. Jantz et al. concluded that children did not perceive growing old as positive. The children in their study also had only limited knowledge and contact with older persons. Other research further documents children's nega— tive and stereotyped attitudes toward the aging and the elderly. A study by Treybig (1974) of young children ages three, four, and five years concluded that young children have negative attitudes toward the elderly. Hickey and Kalish (1968) found that as children increased in ages, their image of adult age did not become less unpleasant, but rather stayed the same. Tuckman and Lorge (1965) found that juniors and seniors in high school held common stereotypes and misconceptions of the elderly as being inactive and with complete loss of adult roles. Another study by Kastenbaum and Durke (1964) on adolescents' attitudes toward the elderly showed that old age appeared unpleasant, risky, and without much sig- nificant positive value. McTavish (1971) conducted an extensive review of research on attitudes toward the elderly and concluded that there is an overall prejudice towards old peOple and that the prospect of aging produces negative attitudes. Only one of the three hundred studies examined by McTavish was concerned with children under the age of eleven. Little has been done in this area. According to Allport (1935) and Klausmeier (1971), attitudes gained in the early years remain as stable enduring influences throughout one's life span. Stereo- typed attitudes that children develop may be a strong influence predisposing the individual to act and react in a consistent way, favorable or unfavorable, toward persons, objects, situations, or ideas (Mussen, 1969). It then follows that the perceptions children hold may have a strong influence for interpreting the world and formulating appropriate responses. These perceptions are indications of negative attitudes by members of our young population and they may have far-reaching impli- cations. Children need to develop positive and realistic attitudes toward the elderly in order to be able to develop positive reciprocal interpersonal relations. A society that holds a positive and realistic attitude towards the aging process and the elderly can only gain in making society a better place for all. A society made up of positive intergenerational contact, aspirations, and motivation become a more fitting place for human development. Need for the Study A primary need for this study is to shed light on several aspects of the problem of social perception. How is social perception in children influenced and formed? Data about children's perception of the elderly, whether affected by direct contact with elderly persons or indirect association through books, television, or other informational resources, assist in the investigation of theoretical issues of how perceptions are formed in preschool children during a transitional stage in cogni- tive and social development. Much research has emphasized the significance of the family in early life. Parent—child and sibling experiences not only mold behavior but also affect the self-image that becomes vital in later years. Social- ization, the process of learning what is expected of an individual, continues long after childhood. Therefore, the nature of the family in which socialization takes place provides a means to understanding what is likely to happen. Since family influences are continuous, one could choose any point as the beginning from the moment of birth of a child or to entrance in public schools. The very great emphasis that child psychologists and social workers have placed on the significance of parental attitude and behavior has forced many people to blame themselves for all the shortcomings of their children. But the fact remains that the child is greatly influenced also by other factors such as heredity, peers, mass media, and by the unavoidable consequences of events over which the parents have no more control than do the children. This is often overlooked, both in literature and by the parents themselves. Therefore, rather than assume that family members are the only primary significant inputs it is necessary to look at other factors that may be contributing to children's per- ceptions of the elderly. The child's interaction with others is only a part of a world or social order perceived by the child when relating to others, objects, or situ- ations. There is a need for establishing the relationship between significant inputs and children's perceptions. Another problem needing further study is the social action concern for the loss of potential human resources due to negative stereotyping attitudes concerning the elderly. Although economic, political, educational, and equal opportunity are espoused axioms of American democ- racy, the elderly are often not accorded this sense of security. Throughout the world one of the basic interests of the aged is to remain as active participants in per— sonal and group affairs (Slater, 1963). Data also appear to be limited on how children perceive the elderly; how- ever, there is limited evidence that shows children hold negative perceptions of elderly persons. Another need which cannot be revealed in measures of immediate impact but of vital concern is the develop- ment of a child's awareness. As the child develops physically, the child should also grow in his ability to understand the feelings of others. In order to gain a sensitivity to and concern for the needs of others, the child must begin learning at an early age. Objectives The objective of this research is to answer basic questions regarding children's perceptions of elderly persons by using two methodological procedures of analyses, a descriptive discussion as well as objective instrumen- tation. Preschool children enrolled in the Foster Grand- parent Day Care Program in Lansing, Michigan will be com- pared with preschool children enrolled in regular day care facilities that do not have elderly volunteers or aides present. Specifically, answers to the following questions will be sought. 1. Is there a difference in perception of the aging and elderly between the preschool children in a Foster Grandparent Program and a comparison group comprised of preschool children in a regular day care setting? 2. Do the two groups of children express differences in attitudes about growing old themselves? 3. Is there a relationship between the children's perceptions of the elderly and the children's perceptions of grandparents? 4. Is there a difference between children's perception of the elderly and parental attitudes about the elderly? 5. Which environmental factors are related to chil— dren's perceptions of the elderly? Hypotheses The following hypotheses will be tested: Hypothesis 1: Preschool children enrolled in a Foster Grandparent Day Care Program (Group A) will evidence a difference in perceptions of the aging and the elderly than the preschool children in regular day care facilities (Group B). Hypothesis 2: Preschool children in a Foster Grandparent Day Care Program (Group A) will evidence a greater variety of perceptions toward the aging and the elderly than the preschool children in regular day care facilities (Group B). Hypothesis 3: Preschool children in a Foster Grandparent Day Care Program (Group A) will evidence a greater amount of direct contact with the aging and the elderly than Group B. Hypothesis 4: Preschool children in Group A will evidence more positive feelings about getting old themselves than Group B. Hypothesis 5: Children's perceptions of grandparents will show a relationship with children's perception of elderly persons. Hypothesis 6: Children's perceptual responses about elderly persons will show a difference from parents' responses about the elderly. Hypothesis 7: Children who spend more time with grandparents have a more positive perception of grandparents than those who spend less time with grandparents. Hypothesis 8: Children who spend more time with grandparents have a more positive perception of elderly persons than those who spend less time with grandparents. Assumptions The following assumptions underlie this study: 1. The preschool years are critical to the child's development of social cognition and are unique for each child. 2. The parents' previous experiences and the way they view the elderly play a role in their family interaction and parent role. 3. The child's experiences in the near environment affect the child's perceptual responses concern- ing the elderly. 4. The interview design is an appropriate method for collecting information from preschool children. 5. The questionnaire form is an appropriate method for collecting information from an adult family member about the child's home and family environ— ment. Limitations of the Study This study is limited to the children and parents who participated in day care units in Lansing, Michigan and, therefore, generalizability is not appropriate. In an attempt to equate the groups, Group B was roughly com— pared to Group A on pertinent variables such as age, sex, type of day care program, and geographic proximity. 10 However, differences of other experiential variables do exist. In this ex post facto research, one cannot manipu— late or assign subjects because the independent variable or variables such as the experiential variables have already occurred (Kerlinger, 1973). The validation procedures of the study are limited in that only one validated instrument was available to obtain the necessary information from the children. There are severe limitations imposed in reporting the data ob- tained from the use of the CATE Instrument. The data ob- tained from the open-ended questions in the Word Associa- tion Subtest are objectified into restricted categories and coded so that much interpretive data are lost. This researcher incorporates two methodological procedures for coding the data, an objective quantification as well as the subjective interpretation of the results. The inclu- sion of both types of coding procedures is based upon the nature of the tOpic; perceptions are highly interpretive and much information is lost when we quantify the answers completely. The parental questionnaire was specifically designed for this population.’ Lack of available funds precluded any attempts to obtain a larger sample. This study is also limited in that there has not been extensive recent research regarding preschool chil- dren's perceptions of elderly persons. In the studies 11 that have been previously conducted, no definition as to what was considered elderly was made to standardize the results. This resulted in a clouded picture of just who and what the elderly represented to the preschool child. Conceptual Definitions The following terms are used throughout this study. CATE.--The CATE is an instrument called Children's Attitudes Toward the Elderly deve10ped and validated by Jantz, Seefeldt, Galper, and Serock (1976) at the Uni- versity of Maryland. This test was designed to assess children's attitudes toward old peOple through analysis of the affective, behavioral, and knowledge component of attitudes. Elderly.--In some capacities age is thought to be the indicator; in others social-psychological factors or physiological changes are used for assessments. According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, it refers to someone somewhat old and advanced beyond the middle age. Cottrell (1974) suggests that much depends upon the person making the assessment. For the purpose of this study, the elderly will be viewed in relation to Cottrell's definition which is the definition of the person making the assessment. 12 Family.--The family is defined conceptually as two or more interacting individuals who share living space and some common resources and have a commitment to each other over some time. Grandparent.——A parent's parent; an ancestor in the next degree who is above father or mother in lineal ascent . Human resources.--Human resources are abilities and characteristics of the individual along with other resources which cannot be utilized independently of the individual. (Specific human resources include time, abilities, skills, and attitudes (Wetters, 1967). Learning.-—Learning is the acquisition of new behavior as a result of experience (Pickering, 1969). Perception.--Perception is the process of knowing objects, facts, or truths, whether by sense, experience, or by thought; awareness of objects. Significant inputs.--In this study significant inputs will refer to "significant others" as well as information. Conceptual Orientation One may define socialization as the process by which someone learns the ways of a given society or social group so that he can function in it. This includes 13 learning and internalizing appropriate patterns, values, and feelings. Since the socialization process occurs through social relationships, a child cannot learn the ways of the society by being apart from people; others, wittingly or unwittingly, teach the child through their guidance, examples, responses, and emotional attachments. Thus, socialization is a function of social interactions (Elkin, 1960). There is no one theory that has received general acceptance in the area of social cognition. However, in this study, the social learning approach by Bandura (1977) will provide the theoretical foundation necessary within a social psychological approach. It is recognized that a child is born in an on-going society with common symbols, established patterns, and recognized positions; and it is through others that a child learns these elements of the social world. The behavior of "significant others" and the process of learning, incidental as well as by direct training, become crucial elements in explaining the socialization process (Bandura and Huston, 1967). However, the socialization approach is not ade- quate by itself in describing the multifaceted phenomenon of human development. The interplay of various environ- ments makes it necessary to view the child in a dynamic ecosystem. For example, underlying the social development of the child is the biological factor. The biological 14 organism requires a suitable input from its near environ- ment such as food, warmth, space, air; it then follows a systematic and orderly pattern in the development of neural, muscular, and glandular tissues. No amount of training can enable a person to function in a given way before he is biologically ready. Maturation and sociali- zation are highly interrelated. Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget (1896), noted for his work with nursery school children, showed that there are distinct lines of develop- ment and that quite early in a child's life social factors combine with physiological development to influence the child's ways of thought and perception of the world. The agencies of socialization such as the family, community, the school, the peer group, media, and mass communication create a flow of informational input and output resulting in mechanisms for interactions between the social as well as the technological and physical environments. The degree to which a child's ecosystem is open or closed to the family ecosystem depends upon the relationship between the adult and the child. If the parent's perception of elderly persons is positive and 'realistic, then the system will remain open to the child and will affect the child's perceptions. The child will have a more positive and realistic perception of elderly persons. If, on the other hand, parents hold negative attitudes concerning the elderly, the family may partially 15 close its boundaries in the area of intergenerational reciprocities as well as in controlling and defining the parameters of the child's ecosystem thereby allowing for a more negative stereotype input as found in the general population. Overview Chapter II includes a survey of current literature as it applies to children's perceptions of persons. The selection of the sample as well as a description of the instruments and the procedures used for collecting and analyzing the data are discussed in Chapter III. A description and discussion of the subjects and their environments are found in Chapter IV. An analysis and discussion of the data and results of the study are pre- sented in Chapter V. Summary, conclusions, and recommen- dations for further research are explicated in Chapter VI. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE The literature important to this study is reviewed under the following general headings: the development of social cognition, social psychological theory of person perception, and research related to children's attitudes toward the elderly. Social cognition of adults, but not children, has been empirically studied throughout this century; however, in the area of person perception, little research has been conducted. Only in the last decade has there been research in the area of the development of person perception. In the recent past social behavior was studied largely from the perspective of psychoanalytic theory or social learn- ing theory (Shantz, 1975). According to Flapan (1968) and Livesley and Bromley (1973), most of the recent studies are not based on any one theory but incorporate social learning theory as well as theory concerning cog- nitive development. 16 17 The Development of Social Cognition From birth onward the individual lives and develops in a social context that determines much of what may appear to be matters of choice. How the child is reared, what is eaten, the language spoken, and the nature of the child's interpersonal relationships are all reflected in a range of possibilities presented by the culture. The concept culture is an abstraction employed by the anthro- pologists. The anthropologists use the concept to attempt to comprehend (make sense of) the relationship between individuals and the settings in which behaviors occur. According to Kluckhohn (1954) the existence of culture is inferred on the basis of the observed regularities in the behavior of specific individuals and from the multitude of cultural artifacts that derive from the behavior. Culture, in this sense, is defined in terms of its exter— nal, directly observable effects. Prohnasky (1965) sug- gested that in order to explain these effects or observed regularities of behavior, anthropologists must also assume the existence of an inner culture, the internalized repre- sentations of these behavior patterns in the form of norms, attitudes, beliefs, values, and needs. A substantial repertoire of manners, folkways, and mores is transmitted to children in the same way that language and concepts are, namely by listening and watch- ing others and by repetitive demonstrations through 18 children's imitation and role learning. This process is variously described in behavior theory as vicarious learning (Logan, Olmsted, Rosner, Schwartz, and Stevens, 1955), observational learning (Maccoby and Wilson, 1957), and role taking (Sears, Maccoby, and Levin, 1957). Inci— dental learning appears to be a result of active imitation by the child of attitudes and patterns of behavior that significant others have never directly attempted to teach. According to Bandura and Huston (1967), part of a child's behavior is believed to be acquired through identification with important adults in the child's life. During the socialization process a child uses a range of situational cues, those that the parents may consider immediately relevant and proceed to teach the child and other cues of behavior which the child observes and learns even though instruction to do so has not cc? curred. The use of incidental cues by both human and ani- mal subjects are well documented by research (Esterbrook, 1959). These cues help to form conceptual formulations that are stored by the child. How much as well as the kinds of conceptual formulations depend usually upon the human and material resources made available to the child. Studies by Hill and Stafford (1971) indicated that chil- dren of differing socioeconomic backgrounds enter grade school with very unequal amounts of resources having been invested in them. The data suggested that higher income 19 families actually spend more time and money in socializ— ing their children than families of lesser income. The human and material resources help to provide the social transmissions. Parents, siblings, and all others who regularly impinge on the child present a variety of personal and cultural traits to which a child responds in different ways. Parents, siblings, others, and all informational inputs constitute what is often termed "significant others." However, this does not mean that the model of a "significant other" acting upon a malleable and unformed child is one proposed in this study for it is an over— simplification. The traditional unidirectional approach of socialization research cannot accommodate complex data as well as provide an impetus for a more complex view of socialization. Yarrow (1960), in her analysis of children's attitudes and values, made some observations that can be applied to social perception. Substituting perceptions for attitudes and values in the following remarks leads to a conclusion consistent with the present analysis. Couplings of parent practices and the behavioral outcomes are only in the vicinity of +.25 to +.35 correlations, attention to intervening conditions, among them the child's attitudes and values may refine these relationships. What is experienced by the child? What is the nature of the cognitive framework in which he interprets the parent's actions, the nature of the attitudes and values brought to play by the parent's behavior? . . . The predictions or explanations of children's 20 behavior without regard to the intervening attitudinal or value states suffer many errors. Incorporating attitudes and behavior into explanatory schemes would seem to be a needed elaboration in research design and theory, even though resulting formulations will be less tidy. (Yarrow, 1960, p. 649) Kephart (1961) in his comprehensive study raised an important issue related to how the researcher is to interpret the effects of a given parental action on»a child; is the important fact the action itself or the child's perception of that action? As Hawkes (1957) states: It is not sufficient or even realistic to assume that, because a mother fondles a child, the child sees this attention as a sign that his mother loves him. It is not the physical nature of the stimulus which determines reaction but rather the way in which that stimulus is interpreted by the individual stimulated. In each case this will be a highly individual interpretation. (p. 47) Dubin and Dubin (1965) postulate that a child's behaviors and attitudes do not necessarily relate to any particular aspect of the home or early environment. These behaviors and attitudes seem, rather, to be deter- mined by the nature of the child and the child's inter— pretations of the totality of the experiences in which they occur. Most reviewers of socialization research have become sensitized to child-effects. Therefore, any explanation and interpretation of correlations between "significant others" does not indicate the direction of effects. In this particular study these important find- ings are recognized: 21 l. The behavior and appearance of the child are a very compelling part of the stimulus field for the "significant other." 2. If the "significant others" are effective, they must, in turn, be affected by the products of their tutelage. 3. Misleading information is obtained if the process of socialization is overlooked and only the final outcome is attended to in the association of child and "significant other" characteristics. 4. The child's characteristics play a role in inter- actions, i.e., phenomenon such as child battering. 5. Parents do not have a uniform impact on all children in their family and the differences are not merely a matter of sibling birth order and sex role. 6. Effects of the young on parents and adults can be demonstrated experimentally. This summary is adapted from the work of Bell and Harper, 1977. What does socialization mean from the child's point of view? It usually consists of being immersed in a continuing sequence of social contexts, family, school, play group, and community in which the child experiences people, objects, rewards, punishments, love, and threats. 22 The child is influenced by people in various culturally determined contexts who are agents of culture. Attitudes, ideals, values, and perceptions are part of the milieu in which the child lives. At home, in the community and at the day care or nursery school, the child has many meaningful experiences. Out of these experiences atti- tudes, ideals, values, and perceptions are acquired. These learnings take place at all ages but are more pro— nounced during childhood than during adolescence or adulthood (Garrison and Jones, 1969). Many everyday experiences are important determiners of how the child reacts at different stages of development. According to Allport (1935), attitudes arise out of one's experiences early in life and serve as a basis for the acquisition of later attitudes. The child's early experiences with people will largely determine later attitudes toward peOple and objects. By the time the child reaches school some measure of favorable and/or unfavorable attitudes towards people and conditions has been acquired. According to Emmerich, Goldman, and Shore (1971) and Sigel, Saltz, and Roskind (1967), the child makes a succession of social judgments of an individual in an ongoing sequence of behavior, often a person with whom the child has interacted before. Ability as well as disposition to recall past events may influence the meaning attributed by the child to the individual's behavior in the current situation. The 23 child may form simple associations or find similarities between the person being judged or interacted with and other friends or acquaintances which would provide added cues for making inferences about the person. Schantz (1975) suggested that the possible perceptual and con- ceptual processes involved in understanding others involve both the intuitive as well as logical abilities when making social judgments. Social Psychological Theory of Person Perception Perceptions help to build concepts. As one per- ceives qualities, an image, a concept, a meaningful whole is organized and then the senses and feelings are objec- tified. This objectification provides feedback which serves as further stimulus for modifying percepts and concepts as well as in forming new ones. Associations are influenced by internal as well as external stimuli and are reinforced at intellectual and intuitive levels. As interaction and integration occur, one begins to develop attitudes and values concerning that which is perceived (Gibson, 1969; Merleau-Ponty, 1964; Solley and Murphey, 1960). According to Shantz (1975) "person perception" is the phrase used by social psychologists in explaining the perceptual and conceptual process involved in under- standing others. The earlier person perception studies 24 by Gollin (1958) and Signell (1966) and the more recent studies by Scarlett, Press, and Crockett (1971) were based on Werner's organismic theory. Werner postulates that all development is a process of transition from a global undifferentiated state to states of greater dif— ferentiation, specification, and hierarchic integration. The developmental shift is from egocentrism to perspec- tivism (Langer, 1970). A primary concern in person perception is the question of how a child describes or categorizes another person or the actions and what dispositions or traits the child attributes to another. According to Piaget (1952) throughout life, beginning in early childhood, people and objects are classified, labeled, and thus categorized. Concerning categorizing Allport (1954) states: The human mind must think with the aid of cate- gories. Once formed, categories are the basis for normal prejudgment. We cannot avoid the process. Orderly living depends upon it. It is in this process that attitudes are learned and thus formed. (p. 20) If, therefore, the social development of children is cog- nitively based then any description of shape or pattern of a structure of social responses necessarily entails some cognitive dimensions. The data in studies concerning how children describe other people are divided into two large cate- gories. One such category is labeled overt descriptions which includes aspects of physical appearance, 25 possessions, and family memberships. The other category is labeled covert descriptions which deals with the other persons' abilities, attitudes, and personality traits. Livesley and Bromley (1973) found in their study of person perception among 320 young people ages seven to fifteen that the number and proportion of psychological descriptions increased insignificantly with age. However, the greatest increase differentiation was observed between the ages of seven to eight years. The seven-year-olds tended to focus on overt qualities like physical appearance and material possessions. Older children used more infer- ential concepts such as values, beliefs, and disposition. It was found that seven-year-olds used an average of about five different traits in their descriptions and the number doubled for the eight—year-olds. For instance the adjectives used by seven-year-olds tended to be vague and diffused. They also show a strong evaluative compo- nent, e.g., bad, nice, good, horrible. Peevers and Secord (1973) found the same trends in their sample of eighty subjects from kindergarten to college. Another interesting trend was that liked peers elicited other-oriented descriptions (no personal involve- ment) while disliked peers elicited more egocentric state- ments (e.g., "he hits me"). 26 Studies have shown that as the ages of the sub— jects increased both the number of categories and the use of covert categories increased in describing people they actually knew (Gollin, 1958; Scarlett et al., 1971; Yarrow and Campbell, 1963). This tendency for young children to use appearance and possessions to describe others may reflect the tendency to distinguish this indi— vidual from other peOple. Dickman (1963) and Flapan (1968) conducted studies involving children and films of people whom they did not know. This was carried out to determine how children discriminate, categorize, infer, and explain the behavior observed and how they characterize the people. As before, the younger children reported overt characteristics. The older children increasingly attempted to explain and characterize the people by inferring thoughts, feelings, and intentions of the actors. Explanations also shifted from situational factors to psychological factors with increased ages. Overall, the greatest changes of all kinds occurred between six and nine years of age. The implications from this study in understanding both person perception and role taking such as an observational learn- ing in children is extremely important especially when considering the effects of mass media, such as television programs and advertising. 27 According to Solley and Murphy (1960) perceptual development is complex, and it appears impossible to interpret perceptual changes in terms of maturation alone, or in terms of learning alone. The most general principle found is that perceptual learning is dependent upon the level of maturation achieved by a child and conversely the full achievement of maturation can be facilitated or inhibited by the occurrence or nonoccurrence of specific learning experiences. "We see 'things' the way we do as adults largely as a resultant of the interaction of nature and nurture within the context of our culture" (Solley and Murphy, 1960, p. 145). Interrelationships of Person Perception and Cognitive Abilities Theorists such as Piaget and Erickson suggest that a child who is advanced in understanding what others see is also advanced in comprehending another's thought. For instance at around the age of three, the child's learning is intrusive and vigorous according to Erickson (1959). The child explores the world and learns more about self as well as roles in the family structure. But also at this time, the child begins to develop and become interested in individuals outside the immediate home, although he may display a fear and distrust of strangers. However, at around age four, egocentricism tends to be replaced by increased social interaction, and the 28 child develops a more sociocentric conception of conditions and objects of the world. "Children now also attach them- selves to teachers, and the parents of other children, and they want to watch and imitate people representing occupations which they can grasp such as firemen, police- men, gardeners, garbage men etc." (Erickson, 1968, p. 122). A significant widening radius of people is influencing the individual. This begins with the mother and extends outwards to the larger community. Significant feelings and attitudes are also shown, beginning with a sense of trust in parents leading to a sense of integrity in adult- hood. Anderson (1961) suggested that what is demanded by significant people is considered valuable by the child, and what the "significant others" reject is considered bad. The significant people with their pressures, atti- tudes, demands, and feelings bestow the structure and content. The child from about four to seven years of age is dominated by assessment of perceptual cues, and much of the child's language and thought depends upon intuition and trial and error, and the child arrives at conclusions often from single cases. According to Klausmeier and Goodwin (1966, p. 233), "preconcepts that are formed are action ridden, imaginative and concrete, rather than schematic and abstract." The young child attends to highly observable, salient, surface cues of people and 29 situations. For instance, the child would often use appearance and possessions of the person to describe and characterize people (Livesley and Bromley, 1973). Like- wise the tendency to center attention on a single aspect of "external" stimuli; attention is focused on the ideas and feelings important to the child (Shantz, 1975). Between four to seven years of age, the child is basically dominated by perceptual cues and sometimes arrives at conclusions about people from single cases. Therefore, it is imperative to have some understanding about the child's attitudes towards the elderly. The Effects of Age on the Child's Perceptions of Adults Research findings indicate that age is a signifi- cant determinant of degree of realism of perceptions and degree of subtlety of cues children use in their per- ceptions. Mott (1954) demonstrated that among four- and five-year-old children, the older more frequently than the younger knew their mother had a first name or that mother was Mrs. . Emmerich (1959) concluded that six- to ten-year—olds ascribed power as a character- izing distinction between sex roles more than children four to five years old. Hess and Torney (1962) reported for the age range seven to fifteen years that the younger more frequently than the older children perceived father 30 as boss in the family while older children more frequently said their parents were about equal as family boss. It was found that with increasing age children's perceptions of adults became more realistic, that is, corresponded more accurately with objective characteristics of persons they knew. Dubin and Dubin (1965) postulated that there is probably some developmental sequence in the formation of perception. First there is the perception of actual behaviors by perceptions of functioning characteristics of role. Later this is followed by a perception of social role as patterned behavior describing a group of people fulfilling a broad social function. Piaget's extensive research in developmental psy- chology suggested two ways in which the description and evaluation of other persons might vary with age. He demonstrated that younger children have an egocentric view of the world--peop1e and things are seen in the child's own highly subjective framework. With increasing age, the child develops reciprocity, or the ability to see the other person's point of View. Peevers and Secord (1973) hypothesized that the use of simple differentiating items and the high level of egocentricity among kindergarten children may well be a necessary stage in getting to know a person. What first emerges is the establishment of relationships in 31 terms of feelings, feelings that are highly egocentric and have little cognitive content. Later these broad, global impressions and feelings are sharpened and more differentiated person perceptual concepts develop. The fundamental issue in children's perceptions versus adults' perceptions may be between a description of a person and an explanation of why a person is what he appears to be. These two approaches may be necessary for an accurate interpretation of a person and one view may be incomplete without the other (Peevers and Secord, 1973). Effects of Sex on the Child's Perception of Adults In the studies by Hawkes, Burchinal, and Gardner (1957), Kohn and Fiedler (1961), and Meltzer (1943), find- ings suggested that the sex of the child affects per- ception. It was generally found that girls were more favorably oriented toward all people than were boys. Girls also reported more satisfactory relations with others including their parents. In spite of the fact that girls reported stronger parental control on their behavior and limitation on their personal behavior, girls had stronger positive orientations toward others (Kell and Aldous, 1960). There are no studies permitting analysis of these characteristic differences in perception of adults by boys and girls. 32 Research Related to Children's Attitudes Toward the Elderly An analysis of research literature indicates that in the general population negative attitudes toward the elderly are commonly found. McTavish (1971) in a review of literature and research findings on perceptions of old people found a prevalence of stereotyped views of the elderly. These stereotyped views of the elderly include notions that old people are generally slower, forgetful, less able to learn new things, grouchy, ill, tired, not sexually interested, withdrawn, feeling sorry for them- selves, less likely to participate in activities except in religion, unproductive and deficient in various combi- nations. The study by Jantz, Seefeldt, Galper, and Serock (1977) showed both negative and positive dimensions. Some of the negative characteristics assigned were sick, ugly, and sad while the positive characteristics assigned were rich, wonderful, and clean. However, when the children reported their knowledge of the elderly in affective terms, their comments tended to be positive; but when reporting in physical descriptive or behavioral terms, their atti- tudes tended to be negative. The results in this particu- lar study show a mixture of positive feelings of affective dimensions. Jantz et a1. (1977) concluded that children did not perceive growing old as positive and expressed negative attitudes associated with aging. Not much was 33 known about the amount of contact these children had with elderly except for the fact that children had few contacts with the elderly outside their own family. Hickey and Kalish (1968) also found children's negative and stereotyped attitudes toward the aging and the elderly. Tuckman and Lorge (1956) and Kastenbaum and Durkee (1964) found that there was an overall preju- dice towards old people and the prospects of aging influenced the formation of negative attitudes in the younger population. The findings of Treybig (1974) indicated that children ages three, four, and five held negative views toward the elderly. These children expressed the concern that they never wanted to get old. However, Thomas and Yamamoto (1975) studied one thousand children in grades six, eight, ten, and twelve and con- cluded that children did not share the general negative attitude toward old age as found in other studies. Except for the findings from the study of Thomas and Yamamoto (1975), the prospects of aging are unpleasant and without much significant positive values. Young children's perceptions of the elderly are commonly stereotyped and do not become less unpleasant as they increased in age, but rather stayed the same. Summary In this chapter the factors that affect the development of social cognition and especially person 34 perception in children have been reviewed. The child's logical representation of others, how others are char- acterized and inferences made about their covert and overt characteristics are discussed. The child observes and interacts with peOple in everyday activities and perhaps the most general finding is that young children especially before the age of seven attend to highly observable, salient surface cues of people and situations. For example, young children often use appearance and pos- session of persons to describe a person. Other children beyond seven or eight years of age show a substantial change in the ways they describe people. More often the description is in terms of values, beliefs, habits, or traits, that is, more abstract descriptions (Livesley and Bromley, 1973). The differences between younger and older children's descriptions of other people may be due to what cues they attend to and how they interpret the cues attended to. The perceptual and conceptual processes involved in the development of understanding others may be a pro— cess of transition from global, undifferentiated states to states of greater differentiation, specification, and integration (Piaget, 1952; Werner, 1948). Research findings indicating children's perceptions of elderly ultimately showed that younger children below age seven do use surface cues or overt qualities such 35 as appearance and possessions in making social judgments of elderly persons. However, the whys for the appearance of negative perceptions of elderly persons as found by researchers were not answered by the literature review. It could be that descriptive traits such as sick, sad, wrinkled, they have heart attacks are not necessarily negative perception of the elderly but are in fact overt realities for the child of his particular situation and context when he interacts with an elderly person. CHAPTER III PROCEDURE This chapter is comprised of four areas: selection of subjects, selection and description of instruments, design of the study, and data analysis. Selection of Subjects The sample is a purposive one selected on the basis of meeting these criteria: child must be enrolled in a day care center at least four hours a day for five times a week for the previous three months; an agreement of parent and child to participate in the study; and the per— mission and cooperation of day care personnel. The sample consisted of forty-four parent-child dyads. Twenty-two children enrolled in a day care facility with an ongoing foster grandparent program (Group A) and their parents were compared with Group B, composed of twenty-two chil- dren randomly selected from day care centers without elderly persons present during operating hours and their parents. 36 37 The foster grandparent program is unique among the sixteen children's day care facilities in Lansing, Michigan. Each day, three elderly volunteers participate as supplementary aides in a classroom of approximately twenty children. These same volunteers spend a half a day with the children from Monday through Friday of each week. This foster grandparent project is sponsored by the Catholic Social Services and has been in operation for approximately a year. Children in Group A were selected from the only day care facility in Lansing, Michigan, which has a foster grandparent program. An attempt was made to eliminate from the sample children who came sporadically or those who were recent to the program. All of the children had been enrolled at the day care center for at least three months. Children whose ages ranged from late three years old to early six years old were included in this study. Children for the comparison group (Group B) were randomly selected from day care centers in Lansing, Michigan, which met the established criteria. These criteria were: the day care center must be located in a similar geographic area as Group A; the center must have provisions for a sliding scale rate as found in Group A; and the day care center must not have an elderly person as an aide or volunteer during the day. Three centers were randomly selected which met these criteria; 38 however, permission and cooperation were obtained from only two of the centers. Therefore, the third center was eliminated from the study. Thirteen parents of the four- and five-year-olds who were randomly selected for the comparison group (B) were contacted in Center I of Group B. Eleven parents of the four- and five-year-olds who were randomly selected for the comparison group (B) were in Center II. All parents who participated in this study were personally contacted. The usual practice was to meet them at the day care center when they came to pick their children up. Other parents were contacted by telephone first in order to obtain a verbal consent before sending them the written consent and a parent questionnaire form. All parents who were contacted by telephone willingly responded to participate in this study. Fifty parents were given questionnaires to take home. The total return rate was 88 percent. The race and sex of the children who participated in this study are shown in Table 3.1. Children classified as white accounted for 79.5 percent of the sample, 18.2 percent were Black, and 2.3 percent reported other. The ages and relationships of the respondents filling in the parent questionnaire are shown in Table 3.2. Well over half of the respondents were in their twenties, and only one was over forty. None of the parents were under twenty years of age. 39 TABLE 3.1 RACE AND SEX OF CHILDREN Sex Race Males Females TONal (38.6%) (61.4%) N N Black (18.2%) 6 2 8 White (79.5%) 11 24 35 Other (2.3%) 0 1 1 Total 17 27 44 TABLE 3.2 AGES AND RELATIONSHIP OF THE RESPONDENTS FILLING IN THE PARENT QUESTIONNAIRE ”3:33;. 1:32;: N N 20 — 24 (15.9%) 7 7 25 - 29 (52.3%) 22 l 23 30 - 34 (18.2%) 7 1 8 35 - 39 (11.4%) 4 l 5 40 - 45 (2.2%) l 1 Total 41 3 44 4O Selection and Description of Instruments In designing this research study, a modified version of CATE, Children's Attitudes Toward the Elderly Instrument by Jantz, Seefeldt, Galper, and Serock, 1977, was decided upon as the assessment instrument for the measurement of the children's perceptions; and a ques- tionnaire designed by the researcher was used for obtain- ing other data from parents such as demographic, atti— tudinal, and general information about the child's experiences with elderly persons. Children's Attitudes Toward the Elderly Instrument (CATE) Modified versions of three of the four subtests of the CATE were appropriate for the study. The testing time of the CATE is short, approximately fifteen minutes in one session for the preschool child. The first sub— test is a word association modification test in which open-ended questions are utilized. The second, a seman- tic differential, employs standardized bi-polar scales on the evaluative dimensions of attitudes. The third employs concrete visual representations to elicit responses. The utility of a concrete pictorial repre- sentation is grounded in the research of child develop- ment which indicates that young children have difficulty in handling abstract concepts. 41 Subtest I--Word Association The Word Association Subtest is composed of Open- ended type questions. This method of assessing children's perception of the elderly has been used by various researchers such as Golde and Kogan (1959) and Treybig (1974). The child's performance on this subtest serves as an indication of the cognitive, affective, behavioral, and physical components of preschool children pertaining to their perceptions of older peOple. During the testing phase of the Word Association Subtest it became necessary to sometimes substitute other concepts for certain words such as big for very. The children themselves often made the substitution. Since the design is meant to elicit the most information pertaining to children's perceptions of elderly persons, the substitution of appropriate words had little effect on the validity of the instrument. There are three areas measured in the Word Associ— ation Subtest. The first section measures the cognitive component, section 2 measures the affective component, and section 3 measures the behavioral component. Section l--Cognitive Component To measure the cognitive component of children's perceptions, the following questions are asked: (1) Tell me about old people. (2) What old peOple do you know? (3) Give me another name for old people. 42 Responses to question one are scored as belonging to one of three categories within the cognitive component: (a) Affective--feelings that are expressed such as they are mean, kind, or "I like them." (b) Physica1—-pertaining to personal appearance of physical attributes such as "they have wrinkles," gray hair, or "they look pretty." (c) Behavioral--responses that describe life style characteristics of older people such as the things they do or like "they die," "they walk slow," "they have money." A frequency count is then tabulated for the entire sample giving an indication as to how children view old peOple in terms of affective, physical, and behavioral ages. In addition, the degree of positiveness or negativeness is measured by rating a specific response as positive, realistic, or negative. Examples of a positive response could include statements such as "they're nice," or "I like them." Negative responses could be "I don't like them," or "they are mean." Realistic responses could be "they have wrinkles," or "gray hair." After each response is given a positive, negative, or realistic rating, a score for each subject is determined by sub- tracting the number of negative responses from the 43 combined score of the positive and realistic responses. This is done for all subjects across categories. In the original CATE, each response is given a positive or negative rating and a score for each subject is determined by subtracting the number of negative responses from positive responses. This is done for all subjects across all categories in order to determine if there are differences in degree of positive and negative responses on the basis of the category or whether responses in general are more positive or negative. However, some of the physical characteristics such as "they have wrinkles" or "gray hair" were not considered as being negative by the researcher; and, therefore, another category, a realistic dimension, was added to the rating and the coding of the data. Responses to questions two and three are coded "yes-no" and analyzed separately to yield a measure for each subject's knowledge of other older persons. Section 2--Affective Component To measure the affective component, children are asked, "How do you feel about getting old?" The chil- dren's responses are divided into three categories: 1. Positive-~The subject will give some indication that he/she feels good about it. 44 2. Neutral--The child may give responses that imply one has little control over getting old such as "That's the way it has to be," or "It's okay." 3. Negative—~Responses such as "I don't want to," or "bad," or "I'll feel sad" are indications of an aversion to getting old. Each child is given either a positive, neutral, or nega- tive score for this question. If two answers are given, one negative and one positive, the score would be neutral as they would cancel out each other. Section 3-—Behavioral Component To measure the behavioral component, children are asked: (1) What do you do with an old man? (2) What do you do with an old woman? Responses to these questions are divided into three categories for scoring purposes. These categories are: 1. With-active.--Activities indicating joint par- ticipation between the subject and the older person. 2. With—passive.--Responses related to quiet activity such as talking or doing something together that is quiet and passive in nature. 3. For.-—Here, either the subject or the older person is doing something for the other person. For 45 example, if the older person is seen as "cooking for me," "giving me presents," "goes to the store for him," when the action is on the part of only one of the parties. Each subject receives a score for the individual cate— gories based on a frequency count. Validity and reliability. This Word Association Subtest has been administered to a random sample of chil- dren (N=180) ages three to eleven. It has been found in the study by Jantz et a1. (1976) that children show a consistency of understanding of and response to test items. Coefficients of inter-rater relatively on category scoring ranged from .79 to .98 (Jantz, Seefeldt, Galper, and Serock, 1976). Administration of the Open- Ended Questions A few days were spent at each of the day care centers prior to the gathering of data. After establish- ing rapport with the children, the examiner interviewed each child on a one-to-one basis preferably in a room away from the rest of the children. However, flexibility and adaptability were of prime necessity; for in many instances, the interviews were conducted on the stairs, in hallways, and, if lucky, a special room that was set apart from the rest of the children. Exact wordings 46 were carefully recorded on paper to insure a complete response. If the child did not respond for approximately thirty seconds, the next question was asked. Subtest II--Semantic Differential The ten items on the Semantic Differential for this study are the same as found in CATE (1976). Results of their study indicate that this is an appropriate sub- test of the evaluation adjectives for young children who indicate a consistent understanding of adjectives and choice possibilities (Jantz et al., 1976). The bipolar adjectives selected for evaluation are: l. Good-bad 2. Happy-sad 3. Right-wrong 4. Wonderful-terrible 5. Pretty-ugly 6. Friendly-unfriendly 7. Clean-dirty 8. Rich-poor 9. Healthy-sick 10. Helpful-harmful The polarity of the ten-item bipolar adjectives scales is rotated so that half are in one direction and half in the other. 47 Validity and Reliability of the Semantic Differential Jantz et a1. (1977) in their study administered the subtest to a random sample of 180 children ages three to eleven and found a consistent understanding of adjectives and choice possibilities on the part of younger children. Thomas and Yamamato (1975) have also supported the applicability of using a semantic dif- ferential technique with young children. Factor loadings for four of the adjective pairs selected for use on the CATE were friendly-unfriendly (.92), ugly-pretty (.83), wrong-right (.80), and bad-good (.93). Factor loadings for the other six pairs of adjectives were not available. Administration of the Semantic Differential The Semantic Differential is administered orally to the children by examiners. Each child is asked to rate one concept at a time. For instance, the child is asked, "Are old people good or bad?" When the child selects one or the other, he is then further asked the degree of his responses. For example, if a child responds that old people are good, the examiner will inquire, "Are they very good or a little good?" This allows the examiner to place a mark on one of the five-point scales. The same procedure is used throughout the ten bipolar 48 items. There is a range of five points on each scale, and the score for each scale can be one to five. Examples are: Very A little Don't A little Very Good- good- Know- bad- Bad- Very A little Don't A little Very Sad sad Know happy Happy Subtest III--Concrete Repre- sentation Since various researchers (Lawrence, 1973; Thomas and Yamamato, 1975) have successfully used concrete repre- sentations such as drawings and photographs as a means of eliciting attitudinal responses from children, the picture on the cover of the June 1972 issue of the Gerontologist was used to represent concrete representations of elderly persons (3 males, 3 females). Research findings in child development indicate that young children have difficulty handling abstract verbal concepts (Piaget, 1967). There- fore, the utility of a concrete pictorial representation is grounded in the research on child development. Section I Which of these people would you like to be with? Why? The subject was asked to point to an elderly person for the first question. To the second part of the question, why?, three types of responses were scored: 1. Age related--Any response referring'to age such as "He looks younger." 49 2. Altruistic--Responses suggesting having the older person's interest in mind, i.e., "I want to take care of him," "I can cook for him." 3. Evaluative--Responses include comments such as "He looks nice," "He's happy," "He can give me things." Section II What kinds of things could you do with that person? Responses were scored into three categories: with active, with passive, and for. These categories are the same as in Subtest I. Validity and Reliability Jantz et al. (1977) reported coefficients of inter-rater reliability on category scoring for this subtest ranging from .72 to .98. Administration Subtest III was administered individually after the child answered Subtest I and Subtest II. The child was handed the magazine cover and was allowed time to look at the photographs of elderly persons. It was extremely important that the examiner adapted the admin- istration of the subtest to the child's speech and age. Instructions were formulated to correspond to the vocab— ulary of the children three years of age and older. 50 The child was allowed thirty seconds of wait time before the examiner continued onto the next question. Parent Questionnaire Four major kinds of information are provided by the parent questionnaire. The information includes a demographic profile of the home environment of the child, attitudinal information which gives insight into how the parent feels about elderly persons, characteristics of the child's grandparents, as well as general information on available learning resource materials about elderly persons. The complete questionnaire appears in Appendix A. The questionnaire was pilot tested using five adults from the East Lansing area. This pilot test was conducted to obtain clarity and understanding of wording .and directions by the adults. Administration Seventy-five percent of the questionnaires were personally handed out to the parents by the researcher. This was important since it allowed for the parent to ask for more explanation of the study if she/he chose to ask. The rest of the questionnaires were handed out by teachers to the parent as they came to pick up their children. These 25 percent were called on the telephone by the researcher to answer any questions that they might 51 have had. Each parent filled out the questionnaire and returned it within two weeks. Design of the Study The design of this study is based on the static- group comparison (Campbell and Stanley, 1963) as shown in Figure 3.1. This design is appropriate for this study because Group A which has experienced X (elderly persons in day care centers) is compared to Group B which has not experienced the aid of elderly persons in day care facilities. Group A H _ _ 91 n = 22 R Group B 02 n = 22 Total N = 44 Fig. 3.1. A Static Group Comparison Design There are no formal means of certifying that Group A and Group B would have been equivalent had it not been for the X. Therefore, to eliminate some of the differences between the groups, some control in selection of the centers was implemented, such as the experiential variables. Under the ex post factor analysis, matching on background characteristics is usually ineffective and misleading, especially in instances in which the persons in the experimental group have sought out exposure to X 52 (Campbell and Stanley, 1963). However, in this particular study, because the foster grandparent program has been in effect for less than a year, many of the children who attended the center already did so prior to imple- mentation of the foster grandparent program. There is no evidence that the parents/children in the experimental group chose that center because of the foster grandparent program. Data Analysis The data obtained from all subjects on all instru- ments were coded, key punched on computer cards, and verified with the aid of staff members in the Office of Research Consultation (ORC) at Michigan State University. The computer program used for analyzing the data was the Northwestern University Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The inferential statistical tests used in this study were the Wilcoxen 3 test, Wilcoxen matched t test, Kendall tau, and Sign Test of the Profile Pattern. The alpha level of significance was set at .05 for deci- sions about rejection of the hypotheses using inferential statistics. The statistical procedures used to test the dif- ferences in the scores of the two Groups A and B with respect to Hypotheses l, 2, 3, and 4, and the combined Groups A and B with respect to Hypotheses 5, 7, and 8, 53 with the scores of their parents with respect to Hypothe- sis 6 and the instruments associated with each of them, are shown in Figure 3.2. Summary The population for this study was preschool chil- dren enrolled in day care facilities in the Lansing, Michigan district. The sample consisted of forty-four subjects and forty—four parents of the subjects. The ages ranged from late three—year-olds to early six-year- olds from surrounding day care facilities. Subjects in Group A consisted of children enrolled in a foster grand— parent program and Group B consisted of randomly selected children from criteria selected day care centers. All children were individually interviewed using a modified version of the CATE, Children's Attitudes Towards the Elderly instrument by Jantz, Seefeldt, Galper, and Serock (1977). A parent questionnaire was also included to gather information on the child's demographic profile of the home environment, attitudinal information about how the parent felt about elderly persons, and actual experiential behaviors as reported by parents of the child's direct and indirect contact with elderly persons. The data from the two groups were analyzed to compare the responses of the children enrolled in the 54 Data Used in Pur se of Anal sis . ' ' p0 y Analy51s Statist1cs Principal Analysis Description of Subjects and Their Environments: Profile of parents, profile of Demographic Frequency grandparents data Count Childrens' direct and indirect Experiential Frequency experiences data Count Parental attitudes toward Attitude Frequency elderly data Count Test of Hypotheses: 1 & 2 Scores on semantic differential . . . . Wilcoxen and word assoc1at10n sect1on t-test 1 and 3 3 Experiential data Wilcoxen t-test 4 Scores on word association section 2 5 Scores on the semantic dif— Kendall ferential tau & Sign Profile Pattern Test 6 Scores on the semantic dif— Matched ferential Wilcoxen t-test 7 & 8 Experiential data Descrip— tive (Frequency Count/ means) Fig. 3.2. Methods Used in the Analyses of Data 55 facility with the foster grandparent volunteers and the responses of children in day care centers without elderly volunteers to determine if the presence of elderly per- sons had any influence on the subject's responses. The data from the responses of Group A and Group B were collapsed and then compared with the appropriate parent responses obtained by means of the parent question- naires. This comparison was made to determine if the child's responses were in agreement with the parent's responses. CHAPTER IV DESCRIPTION AND DISCUSSION OF SUBJECTS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT In this chapter, data collected from the respon- dents of the parent questionnaire are discussed and reported. The Contextual Conditions of the Children In attempting to describe the subjects, it is also necessary to discuss some of the factors in the near environment that provides the contextual conditions sur- rounding the child, such as a profile of the families, a profile of grandparents, the children's experiential behaviors of elderly-child interactions, and the chil- dren's parental attitudes toward elderly persons. Profile of Families The most striking characteristic of the families was that 50 percent of these children came from two- parent households. There were 36.4 percent single parent households and 13.6 percent decided not to comment on 56 57 their marital status. The marital status of the respon- dents of the parent questionnaire are shown in Table 4.1. Most of the respondents were mothers (93.2%). TABLE 4.1 MARITAL STATUS OF PARENTS Group A B Total N N N 1. Never married (2.3%) 1 2. Married (50%) 13 9 22 3. Widowed (2.3%) l 4. Separated (4.5%) l 2 5. Divorced, not remarried (27.3%) 5 7 12 6. Don't know (0.0%) 7. No response (13.6%) 2 4 Total 22 22 44 A small number of households (9%) have other adults, not parents of the child, living with the family. The three varieties of household composition with other adults included were: 1. Two households had a single adult male living in. 2. One household had four other adult females living in. 3. One household had three adults, one married couple and a single adult male, living in. 58 With respect to educational levels, the largest category (50%) had at least one to three years of college, technical or business training. At least 29.5 percent of the respondents had a bachelor's degree. As shown in Table 4.2, only 253 percent of the parents had less than a high school diploma. A majority of the respondents (79.5%) considered themselves fully employed at the time they filled in the parent questionnaire as shown in Table 4.3. The respon- dents chose as many categories as they saw appropriate to their situation. The other categories which had no responses were eliminated from this table but can be found in Appendix A. Estimated total family yearly incomes are shown in Table 4.4. The median income levels for these par- ticular families using day care facilities is $11,000- 14,999. The estimated total yearly income ranged from two families in the $3,000-4,999 level to ten families earning over $20,000. The two families at the 3,000- 4,999 level were single parent households. The respon— dents were employed and also students. All ten families earning over $20,000 were two-parent households. Profile of Grandparents In order to have a more complete picture of the factors that may affect the child's perception of elderly persons, data on the living grandparents were collected 59 TABLE 4.2 EDUCATIONAL LEVEL OF PARENTS IN GROUP A AND GROUP B Group Total Education Level A B N N N 1. Less than 8 grades of elemen— tary school 0 0 0 2. 8 grades of elementary school 0 0 0 3. 1-3 years of high school 0 l 1 4. Completed high school and received a diploma or passed high school equivalency exam 4 4 8 5. 1-3 years of college, business school, or technical training 10 12 22 6. College graduate, bachelor's degree 3 2 5 7. Post bachelor's course work 2 0 2 8. Master's degree 2 l 3 9. Post master's course work 1 2 3 10. PhD, EdD 0 0 0 11. Other professional degree (such as MD, DO, JD, DDS): 0 0 0 Please specify Total 22 22 44 60 TABLE 4.3 EMPLOYMENT STATUS OF PARENTS Employment Status No Yes Houseperson (31.8%) 30 14 Student (27.3%) 32 12 Part-time employment (13.6%) 38 6 Full-time employment (79.5%) 9 35 TABLE 4.4 ESTIMATED TOTAL FAMILY YEARLY INCOME Group Income Levels A B Total N N N Under 3,000 0 3,000-4,999 2 2 5,000-6,999 2 2 4 7,000-8,999 2 3 5 9,000-10,999 4 2 6 ll,000-14,999 3 4 7 15,000-19,999 4 5 9 Over 20,000 4 6 10 No response 1 1 Total 22 22 44 61 such as grandparents' ages at last birthday, sex, marital status, health, and time spent with the child either by visits or telephone calls. Forty-three children (98%) in this study have at least one living grandparent. Eighteen (41%) respondents reported the child having all four grandparents living. Seven children (16%) had more than four grandparents which may indicate a remarriage by a parent. There are more living female grandparents than male grandparents as shown in Table 4.5. Marital status of the children's grandparents are shown in Table 4.6. Only 5.6 percent of the 142 grandparents were separated or divorced whereas in Table 4.1 it was noted that nearly 37 percent of the respondents reported a divorced or separated marital status. Well over half of the grandparents were married (69.7%) and 20.4 percent were widowed. Approximately twice as many of the first three grandparents were in good health as shown in Table 4.7. However, from Grandparent IV the data show a decrease in their health status from good to fair. Sixty-one percent of the grandparents were rated in good health, 30 percent were rated in fair condition, and 9 percent were rated in poor health. 62 TABLE 4.5 SEX AND TOTAL NUMBER OF LIVING GRANDPARENTS Number of ?§§a%:) (§§l§%) Total Living ' ° Grandparents N N N 1 (97.7%) 26 17 43 2 (86.4%) 23 15 38 3 (70.5%) 18 13 31 4 (40.9%) 9 9 l8 5 (15.9%) 2 5 7 6 (11.4%) 4 1 5 Total 82 60 142 TABLE 4.6 MARITAL STATUS OF CHILD'S GRANDPARENTS Number of Living No Never Mar W1dowed Separ- Divorced Grand- Response Mar- ried NOt ated Not ried Married Married parents 1 l 27 14 l 2 l 32 4 l 3 2 19 6 l 3 4 l l 13 l 1 l 5 5 2 6 3 2 Total 3 3 99 29 2 6 63 TABLE 4.7 HEALTH STATUS OF CHILD'S GRANDPARENTS Health Status Grandparent Good Fair Poor N N N Grandparent I 25 12 6 Grandparent II 26 11 l Grandparent III 21 88 2 Grandparent IV 11 7 0 Grandparent V l 3 3 Grandparent VI 3 2 Total N (142) 87 43 12 In the study by Jantz, Galper, and Serock (1977), it was found that children had limited contact with elderly persons. Data about children in this study partially support the findings. Total percentages of time children spent with grandparents are shown in Table 4.8. Out of forty—four children, only one child did not have a grand- parent. A majority of the children (86.4%) saw at least one grandparent about once each week. Only 6.8 percent of the children saw their grandparents at least once each day. As more numbers of grandparents were reported by the parents, there were less children involved. 64 TABLE 4. TOTAL NUMBER OF TIMES CHILDREN 8 SPEND WITH GRANDPARENTS Total Time Child Sees Grandparents Number of Children Per Number of Grandparents 1 2 3 4 5 6 About once each day (6.8%) 2 l About 3-4 times a week (25.1%) 6 1 l 1 1 l About once each week (86.4%) 12 13 7 4 1 l About once or twice each month (81.9%) 12 12 7 4 1 About 6 times each year (36.2%) 3 2 4 2 3 2 About once a year (70.6%) 7 8 9 5 l 1 Never (15.9%) 1 l 3 2 No response (1 child, 2.3%) 1 Total N (44) 43 38 31 18 7 6 65 Children's Experiences with Other Elderly Persons Sometimes preschoolers meet elderly persons out- side the home. Data were collected to give us a descrip- tion of the elderly persons the child may have met or been with over a time period of one week. Also data were collected on the total numbers of hours children spend with these particular individuals. Total number of times children see elderly persons classified by sex and age are shown in Table 4.9. Data indicate that 25 percent of the children see an elderly female 55-65 years old and 13.6 percent see an elderly male of the same age range about once each day. Approximately 20 percent of the children see an elderly female person 66-75 years old and only 4.5 percent see an elderly male of the same age range at least once each day. Only 6.8 percent of the children see an elderly female seventy-six years and older and none reported seeing an elderly male of the same age range about once each day. The data indicate that more children see elderly females than elderly males during a day. Sixty-eight and two-tenths percent of the children see an elderly female 55-65 years old and 61.4 percent of the children see an elderly male of the same age range at least once a week. There is only a slight difference in terms of contact here. Forty-three and three-tenths 66 TABLE 4.9 TOTAL PERCENTAGES OF TIME CHILDREN SEE ELDERLY PERSONS BY SEX AND AGE Sex and Age Total Time Child 55-65 66-75 76 Years Sees Elderly Years Old Years Old and Older Female Male Female Male Female Male % % % % % % About once each day 25 13.6 20.5 4.5 6.8 About 3-4 times a week 15.9 20.5 11.4 11.4 4 5 2.3 About once each week 27.3 27.3 11.4 15.9 6 8 6.8 About once or twice each month 13.6 9.1 9.1 11.4 9 l 9.1 About 6 times each year 2.3 6.8 6.8 4.5 6.8 4.5 About once a year 4.5 6.8 6.8 18.2 15.9 Never 4.5 19.1 18.2 No response 11.9 22.7 29.5 36.4 38.6 43.2 Total N = (44) 67 percent of the children see an elderly female 66-75 years old and 31.8 percent of the children see an elderly male of the same age range at least once a week. Only 18.1 percent of the children see an elderly female seventy—six and over and 9.1 percent of the chil- dren see an elderly male of the same age range about once each week. These data indicate that children have more contact with elderly females than elderly males. But a closer look at the table shows that there are more "no responses" for the male category than the female. Respondents either were not as aware of elderly males or else there were less elderly males in the child's near environment. According to Johnson and Bursk (1977) in the United State's population, there are approximately 57 percent females and 41 percent males over sixty-five years of age. This fact may help to explain the reason for children having less opportunity for contact with elderly males. Assessment of Elderly-Child Inter- action in Different Settings An effort was made to analyze the amount of inter— action by learning about the environment where contacts are made. Data gathered were sparse and this may be due to the fact that the children spend much of their time at the day care centers under other adult supervision. Frequency count of contacts made as well as hours spent 68 with elderly persons in the particular settings are shown in Tables 4.10 - 4.18. TABLE 4.10 CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY-CHILD INTERACTION IN PRESCHOOL/DAY CARE FOR A WEEK Frequency 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Number of Elderly Persons Number of Children N = 44 27 7 l 2 2 4 1 Number of Hours Spent Number of Children N = 44 27 4 l 12 Of the forty-four parent-child dyads, twenty-seven parents (61.4%) reported that their child had no contact with an elderly person over the past week, as shown in Table 4.10. This indicates that five parents (11.4%) were unaware of the foster grandparent day care program which their child participated in. Only nine of the forty-four parents (20.5%) indicated their child had contact with at least three different elderly persons. It appears that parents have very limited knowledge of what happens at the day care centers. For children in Group A (N=22) there were three elderly foster grand- parents present every day at the day care unit. Out of sixteen children who had some contact with elderly persons in day care settings, twelve children (25%) had 69 more than nine hours of contact per week. The other five children had less than two hours of contact per week with elderly persons. Not many children had contact with an elderly person in the library as shown in Table 4.11. Only three children were reported as having had contact with an elderly person for at least an hour over the past week. Ninety-three percent of the children had no contact with an elderly person in a library setting. TABLE 4.11 CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY-CHILD INTERACTION IN LIBRARY FOR A WEEK Frequency 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Number of Elderly Persons Number of Children N = 44 41 2 1 Number of Contact Hours Number of Children N = 44 41 3 Children have only a limited amount of contact with the elderly in a church setting as shown in Table 4.12. Two children (4.5%) had contact with eight elderly persons and two children had spent at least three hours a week with the elderly. Only 18.2 percent of the children had contact with the elderly in a church setting. This percentage is slightly higher than what 70 is reported as the attendance rate in church attendance for working class adults. Rubin (1976) found in her study that 10 percent of working class families attend church regularly. If one can assume that children attend church with their parents, these data indicate that there is a higher church attendance rate in this sample than found in the working class in Rubin's study. TABLE 4.12 CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY-CHILD INTERACTION IN CHURCH FOR A WEEK Frequency 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Number of Elderly Persons Number of Children N = 44 36 2 4 2 Number of Hours Spent Number of Children N = 44 36 6 2 Almost half of the children were reported to have contact with elderly neighbors (43.2%) as shown in Table 4.13. The range of contact was from ten children having had contact with at least one elderly neighbor a week to one child having had contact with seven elderly neighbors over a week's time. Four children had at least nine hours of contact with elderly neighbors in a week's time. The mean number of hours these nineteen children spent with an elderly neighbor was three hours per week. 71 TABLE 4.13 CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY-CHILD INTERACTION WITH NEIGHBOR FOR A WEEK Frequency 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Number of Elderly Persons Number of Children N = 44 25 10 5 2 1 1 Number of Hours Spent Number of Children N = 44 25 10 2 l 1 l Nine of the children have some contact with elderly relatives over a week's time (20.5%) as shown in Table 4.14. Three of the nine children who have some contact with elderly relatives (33.3%) have at least nine or more hours of contact with elderly relatives over a period of a week. During the past week, children had had very limited contact with medical personnel as shown in Table 4.15. Only 15.9 percent of the children have seen at least two elderly persons in a medical setting. Only a few children have contact with elderly friends (13.6%) as shown in Table 4.16. The mean number of hours spent by the six children with elderly friends was 1.5 hours per child. Nine children have some contact with elderly persons in stores or in market places (20.5%) as shown in Table 4.17. One child has at least four hours of 72 TABLE 4.14 CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDER-CHILD INTERACTION WITH RELATIVES (OTHER THAN GRANDPARENTS) FOR A WEEK Frequency 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Number of Elderly Persons Number of Children N = 44 35 4 1 1 2 Number of Hours Spent Number of Children N = 44 35 6 3 TABLE 4.15 CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY-CHILD INTER- ACTION WITH MEDICAL PERSONNEL FOR A WEEK Frequency 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Number of Elderly Persons Number of Children N = 44 37 5 2 Number of Hours Spent Number of Children N = 44 37 7 73 TABLE 4.16 CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY-CHILD INTER- ACTION WITH A FRIEND FOR A WEEK Frequency 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 \ Number of Elderly Persons Number of Children N = 44 38 5 1 Number of Hours Spent Number of Children N = 44 38 4 1 1 TABLE 4.17 CONTACT HOURS AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF ELDERLY-CHILD INTER- ACTION WITH PEOPLE IN STORES OR MARKET PLACES FOR A WEEK Frequency 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Number of Elderly Persons Number of Children N = 44 35 3 4 l 1 Number of Hours Spent Number of Children N = 44 35 8 1 74 contact per week, but the rest of the eight children reported to have less than an hour of contact. Thirty- five of the children (79.5%) have no contact with elderly persons in stores or market places. The problem could be that parents are not aware of elderly persons at these places or parents leave the child at home when the parent goes shopping. Child's Indirect Experiences with Elderly Persons There are many items in the home that contribute to learning. Media sources such as television, news— papers, magazines, books, records, and cassette tapes may have an influence in learning about elderly people. Therefore, data were collected and designated under media categories to help describe the child's near-by learning environment. During a week's span 18.2 percent of the children had some indirect exposure to elderly persons through the newspapers and magazines. Nearly 7 percent of the children had some indirect contact with elderly persons through records. Only one child or 2.3 percent had a cassette tape that exposed the child to some per- ceptions of the elderly. Nine children, or 20.4 percent of the children, had some indirect exposure to elderly persons through books. The largest source of indirect exposure to elderly persons was the television. Approxi- mately 82 percent of the parents reported that their 75 children were exposed to elderly persons on television. Parents reported a child having seen one show per week to eight shows per week containing portrayals of the elderly. This set of data on television Viewing and por— trayals of elderly is to be viewed with caution. Accord- ing to Project Castle (Simmons, Greenberg, and Atkin, 1977), only 3—4 percent of major characters were old, and extremes of age are rare on television. Parents' Attitudes Toward Elderly Persons In addition to the demographic and experiential information, the parent questionnaire contained a section on parental attitudes toward elderly persons and grand- parents. Analysis of the data is shown on Table 4.19. Discussion of Findings on Parental Attitudes More parents (93.2%) felt that grandparents more than elderly persons expected preschool children to obey them and visit with them. Parents felt that grandparents were not as good examples for preschoolers as elderly in general, and only 50 percent of the parents agreed that parents were to be blamed when preschool children did not respect the elderly person 0r grandparent. Half of the parents felt that grandparents encouraged pre- schoolers to behave differently from the way the children 76 TABLE 4.18 TELEVISION SHOWS AND THE PERCENTAGES OF CHILDREN WHO WATCH THEM Percentages Shows (N=38) Waltons 63.2 Mr. Kangaroo 26.3 Sesame Street 23.7 My Three Sons 18.4 Grizzly Adams 15.8 Mr. Rogers 10.5 I Love Lucy 10.5 All in the Family Amazing Spider Man Baby I'm Back Barnaby Jones Bob Newhart Brady Bunch Doris Day Show Electric Co. Emergency Fat Albert Gilligan's Island How the West Was Won The Jeffersons Laverne and Shirley Little House on the Praire Love Boat Muppets Saturday Children's Film Festival Saturday morning cartoons Specials Studio C Walt Disney Wild Kingdom Below 10 percent NOTE: Four children do not watch any television shows. Two parents reported not knowing what shows their children watched that contained elderly portrayals. 77 TABLE 4.19 PARENTAL ATTITUDE SURVEY TOWARD ELDERLY PERSONS AND GRANDPARENTS (N=44) Do you think elderly persons/grandparents expect pre- school children to obey them? Elderly Persons Grandparents N % N % Disagree 2 4.5 3 6.8 Unsure 4 9.1 0 —- Agree 37 84.1 41 93.2 No Response 1 2.3 0 -- Do most elderly persons/grandparents like quiet pre- school children better than noisy preschool children? Elderly Persons Grandparents N % N % Disagree 10 22.7 16 36.4 Unsure 7 15.9 7 15.9 Agree 26 59.1 21 47.7 No Response 1 2.3 0 -- Can elderly persons/grandparents who are very friendly control preschool children? Elderly Persons Grandparents N % N % Disagree 3 6.8 3 6.8 Unsure 6 13.6 3 6.8 Agree 34 77.3 38 86.4 No Response 1 2.3 0 -- Do you think most elderly persons/grandparents are good examples for preschoolers? Elderly Persons Grandparents N % N % Disagree 1 2.3 2 4.5 Unsure 11 25.0 13 29.5 Agree 31 70.5 29 65.9 No Response 1 2.3 0 -- 78 TABLE 4.19 (continued) Do most elderly persons/grandparents really want pre- schoolers to visit them? Elderly Persons Grandparents N % N % Disagree 2 4.5 0 -- Unsure 14 31.8 2 4.5 Agree 27 61.4 42 95.5 No Response 1 2.3 0 -- Are parents to blame when children do not respect the elderly persons/grandparents? Elderly Persons Grandparents N % N % Disagree 9 20.5 9 20.5 Unsure 12 27.3 13 29.5 Agree 22 50.0 22 50. No Response 1 2.3 0 -- Do you think most elderly persons/grandparents like preschool children? Elderly Persons Grandparents N % N % Disagree 1 2.3 0 -- Unsure 7 15.9 1 2.3 Agree 35 79.5 43 97.7 No Response 1 2.3 0 -- Do you think most preschool children like elderly persons/grandparents? Elderly Persons Grandparents N % N % Disagree . 0 O 0 0 Unsure 11 25. l 2.3 Agree 32 72.7 43 , 97.7 No Response 1 2.3 79 TABLE 4.19 (continued) 10. Do elderly persons/grandparents encourage children to behave differently from the way they are told at home? Elderly Persons Grandparents N % N % Disagree 9 20.5 22 50.0 Unsure 7 15.9 8 18.2 Agree 27 61.4 14 31.8 No Response 1 2.3 Do you think most elderly persons/grandparents are too old-fashioned in their views about child care and rearing? Elderly Persons Grandparents N % N % Disagree 8 13.6 27 61.4 Unsure 9 20.5 5 11.4 Agree 28 63.6 12 27.3 No Response 1 2.3 80 were told at home. However, parents did not view grand- parents as old fashioned in their views about child care and rearing. But parents felt elderly persons in general were more old fashioned. More parents (97.7%) felt that preschoolers liked their grandparent, and 72.7 percent of the parents felt that children liked elderly persons. More parents felt that grandparents rather than elderly persons liked the preschooler. The most important dimensions in which 90 percent or more of the parents agreed with were grandparents liked preschool children and preschool children liked grandparents. Parents also felt that grandparents would like the preschool child to visit with them. Parent-Child Interaction Before a Visit To Grandparents If parents felt that grandparents would like the preschool children to visit with them, what do parents say to prepare their children for the visit? A hypotheti- cal question was asked of the respondents. Let us just imagine that is old enough to stay overnight at grandparent's home for the first time. How do you think you would prepare him/her? What would you do or tell him/her? Nearly half of the forty-four parents applied some positive auto suggestive technique; they told their child to "have a good time" or “you'll have a good time." 81 However, in the same breath they followed that phrase with a series of reminders or subtle commands such as "obey g . . .," "listen to them," "be good," "go to bed early," "brush your teeth," "don't mess," "be quiet," and "be a big girl." Some parents used a form of bribery; others threaten in order to insure an appropriate behavior from the child. An example was "Don't be bad. Please obey them. If you don't you will get a spanking by me when you get home." A few parents reasoned with their child such as, "Don't play around after you are in bed. Grandpa and Grandma will have to get up to get you settled in bed and you don't want them to get tired. They need the rest." Only one parent reminded her child to show some affection to her grandparents. She told the child to "give Granny a kiss for Mom." Approximately one-fourth of the parents reassured the child that the parent was coming back to pick the child up at a certain time. To Neighbors Parents were also asked this question: Let us just imagine that is about to visit with an elderly neighbor for the afternoon while you run on an errand that will take about 2-3 hours. How do you think you would prepare him/her? What would you do or tell him/her? A technique used by some of the parents was to try to entice or make the visit to the neighbors as attractive as possible. Children were told that the 82 neighbor was looking forward to the visit, how Mrs. would read to her, or reminding the child of the fun he/she had at the last visit. The most common phrases used by parents to prepare the child were "mind her," "obey her," "be good," "don't get into a mess," or "don't get into trouble." There were less reminders as compared to the visit with grandparents. Nearly half of the parents reassured the child as to the parent's return. Comparison of Visit Preparations Generally parents were not as specific in their preparation and reminders to their children when they visited with neighbors as when they visited with grand- parents. There were more do's and don'ts for the child before a Visit with grandparents. Also, there were more threats of punishment or enticement for good behavior like a special treat for being good. And yet, at the same time they were told to have fun nearly twice as often as found when visiting with neighbors. The child was told to put on his best suit of behavior when visiting with grandparents. The atmosphere between parent and child was more intense in demands. This may be due to the intensity of the reciprocal relationship between the parents and grandparents, whereas the demands were less so between parent and child when the child was to visit with a neighbor. 83 Accordingly, the reciprocal relationship between neighbor and parent is less intense. Therefore, parents may moderate their behavior and place demands upon the children according to the nature of the relationship between the parents and others. Further study is neces- sary in order to determine if in fact there is a relation- ship between the intensity of the reciprocity between the "other" and parents, and the intensity of reciprocity between parent and child when situations demand the interaction between the child and the "other." The strength of the reciprocity between parent and the "other" determines the intensity of demands on the child when interacting with the "other." More is expected from some- one you know than from a stranger. However, this could also be the result of a methodological problem because the question for grandparents always came before the question for neighbors. This situation may have precipi- tated an imbalance and respondents answered the first question more fully than the second question. Summary This chapter has been devoted to describing and discussing the subjects and their environments. Analysis of the data revealed that 50 percent of the subjects for this study came from two-parent households. The median range for estimated family yearly income was $11,000- $14,900. Of the forty-four parent respondents, 84 79.5 percent reported having one to three years of col- lege, business school, technical training, or better. Forty—three children in the sample had at least one living grandparent. As the number of living grand- parents increased, there were progressively less children with living grandparents. Marriages seemed relatively stable for grandparents as only 5.6 percent were divorced or separated whereas 31.8 percent of the children's parents who answered this particular section were divorced. Grandparents were relatively healthy and a majority of the children (86.4%) saw at least one grandparent about once each week. The children have more contacts with elderly persons in the neighborhood than in any other setting and least contact with elderly persons at the library. However, more than half the parent respondents marked zero for each of the eight social settings (day care, library, church, neighborhood, relatives, medical, friend, market places) indicating a possibility that parent respondents were not fully aware of the children's experiences during the day. Parental attitudes toward the grandparents and elderly showed that parents felt grandparents liked pre- school children and wanted the children to visit with them. Parents also felt that children liked their grandparents. However, 50 percent of the parents felt 85 that parents were not to be blamed when children did not respect elderly persons or grandparents. It seemed that slightly more parents felt that grandparents were not as good examples for their children as elderly people in general. This presents an interesting phenomenon, as the old saying goes, "The pasture always looks greener on the other side of the fence." This adage also seems to apply when evaluating elderly persons. CHAPTER V ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS The chapter is devoted to a presentation of the results in relation to each of the hypotheses; additional data are also reported. Each hypothesis is stated separ- ately and followed by the analysis. Hypothesis 1 HO: Null Hypothesis: There will be no difference in the responses of preschool children in a Foster Grandparent Day Care Program (Group A) perceptions toward the aging and the elderly and those preschool children in regular day care facilities (Group B). HI: Alternative Hypothesis: Preschool children enrolled in a Foster Grandparent Day Care Program (Group A) will evidence a difference in perceptions of the aging and the elderly than preschool children enrolled in regular day care facilities. The statistic used to test the difference between scores of the two groups was a nonparametric difference test, the Wilcoxen t-test. The value of w is equivalent to the number of times that a score in one group ranks 86 87 higher than a score in a second group. In Table 5.1 the value of w, the rank sum, and the exact two~tailed probability are shown. Analysis indicated no significant difference between Group A and Group B. Thus the null hypothesis for Hypothesis I was not rejected by the findings in this study. When means of the bipolar adjective scores were analyzed, Group A had somewhat higher mean scores for eight of the ten bipolar adjectives on the semantic dif- ferential subtest. This finding indicates a less positive view of elderly persons for Group A even though the dif- ference was not significant. Mean responses of Group A and Group B on the semantic differential about the elderly are shown in Table 5.2. Conducting a profile analysis using the sign test by plotting the means, differences or similarities in the profile can be observed. If there are consistently greater means for one group than for the other group such that their profiles tend to stand apart, the statistical probability of such a consistent difference can be tested by referring to a Bionominal Probability Table according to Isaac and Michael (1971). Therefore, a profile comparison of mean responses of Group A and Group B is shown in Figure 5.1. The probability that Group A would consistently fall to one side of all of the response means of Group B was at the level of 88 TABLE 5.1 RESULTS OF THE WILCOXEN t-TEST FOR SCORES OF GROUP A AND GROUP B ON THE SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIALS ABOUT ELDERLY PERSONS N = 44 Bipolar Mean Mean Rank Probability Ad'ectives Rank Of Rank Of U Sum w (2-t 'led) 3 Group A Group B a1 1. Helpful- Harmful 23.3 21.7 223.5 476.5 .6481 2. Healthy- Sick 22.1 22.9 250.5 503.5 .8382 3. Rich-Poor 21.4 23.6 266.0 519.0 .5599 4. Clean-Dirty 24.9 20.1 190.0 443.0 .2077 '5. Friendly- Unfriendly 22.9 22.1 251.5 504.5 .8143 6. Pretty-Ugly 23.9 21.1 212.0 465.0 .4687 7. Wonderful- Terrible 23.2 21.8 226.0 479.0 .6945 8. Right-Wrong 23.0 22.0 231.0 484.0 .7835 9. Happy-Sad 22.6 22.4 240.5 493.5 .9704 10. Good-Bad 23.0 22.0 230.0 483.0 .7532 NOTE: Group A (N=22) Group B (N=22) 89 TABLE 5.2 MEAN RESPONSES OF GROUP A AND GROUP B ON THE SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL ABOUT ELDERLY PERSONS >1 I H | PI H I I O >«"O :50) "0 .4:4 > o .4 c l wara m :35 .C Ch I '00) >1 NJ) I I an 'H'H «IJ I CI>~1 Ci-v-I -IJ (1)-HI 4J0“ >1 I o E r4.¥ .c m u m H u >~'U H .2 c a, w .4 H m o o o H ~H‘H m H a u use amp 0 o m o-H -a .4-H H c H UI O m 'H H m m CECE: :rzm Cd UQ ELI: III-(DEB “3 mm 8 Group A 2 32 2.77 2.90 3.14 2 55 3.09 2.86 2.40 3.09 2.45 Group B 2.14 2.86 2.95 2.36 2.40 2.36 2.31 1.77 2.45 2.40 Semantic Differential Scale 1 2 3 4 5 Helpful fl___ ____ __“_ Harmful Healthy ____ _____ _____ Sick Rich ____ ____ ____' Poor Clean ____ ____ ____ Dirty Friendly ____ ____ ____ Unfriendly Pretty ____ ____' ____. Ugly Wonderful ____ _____ ____. Terrible Right _____ _____ ____' Wrong Happy ‘____ _____ ____' Sad Good ____ ____ Bad °+-————~ Group A o——~w—-o Group B Fig. 5.1. Profile Comparison of Mean Responses of Preschool Children in a Foster Grandparent Program (Group A) and Preschool Children in Regular Day Care Facilities (Group B) (p = .05). 90 significance (p = .05). These findings indicate that children in the Foster Grandparent Day Care Program (Group A) have less positive views of elderly persons than children in regular day care settings (Group B), although the difference in the means was not significant. Hypothesis 2 HO: Null Hypothesis: There will be no difference in the variety of per— ceptions in the responses of preschool children in a Foster Grandparent Day Care (Group A) toward the aging and the elderly and those preschool children in regular day care facilities (Group B). HI: Alternative Hypothesis: Preschool children enrolled in a Foster Grandparent Day Care Program (Group A) will evidence a greater variety of perceptions toward the aging and the elderly than preschool children in regular day care facilities (Group B). The Wilcoxen t-test statistic was utilized to test the difference between Groups A and B. On each of the cognitive components: affective-positive; affective- negative; physical-positive; physical-negative; behavior- positive; and behavior-negative, the scores of the two groups appear to be similar as shown in Table 5.3. Thus, the null hypothesis for Hypothesis 2 was not rejected at alpha level .05. Group A and Group B were not signifi- cantly different in varieties of perceptions. Further analysis was done in order to get a total look at chil- dren's perceptions of elderly persons. 91 TABLE 5.3 RESULTS OF THE WILCOXEN t-TEST FOR SCORES ON GROUP A AND GROUP B ON THE VARIETIES OF PERCEPTIONS ABOUT ELDERLY PERSONS Mean Mean P bab'lit Cognitive Component Rank of Rank of U W ro .1 Y (2-ta11ed) Group A Group B Affective-positive 21.5 23.5 264.5 517.5 .2894 Affective—negative 23.0 22.8 231.0 484. .6386 Physical—positive 21.5 23.5 264.0 517. .2998 Physical-negative 23.4 21.6 222.0 475. .5665 Behavior-positive 24.4 20.6 200.0 453. .2579 Behavior-negative 21.3 23.8 269.5 522.5 .4920 Group A and Group B scores on the cognitive com- ponents of the Word Association Subtest were tabulated and combined. The results are shown in Table 5.4. The findings indicate that 90.9 percent of the children made no affective positive remarks and 88.6 percent made no affective-negative remarks about elderly persons. How- ever, on the physical dimension 31.8 percent of the children made negative evaluations compared to only 9.1 percent of the children who made positive physical comments about the elderly person. The most striking comparison was found in the behavioral dimensions. A total of 38.6 percent of the children had some positive description whereas 59.1 percent of the children made negative evaluations. The range was from one to six 92 TABLE 5.4 RANGE AND FREQUENCY COUNT OF CHILDREN'S RESPONSES ON THE VARIETY OF PERCEPTIONS ABOUT ELDERLY PERSONS Frequency Count of Responses Group 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Affective Components Number of children 40 3 1 Positive (90.9%) ( 6.8%) ( 2.3%) 39 5 Negative (88.6%) (11.4%) Physical Component Number of children 39 4 Positive (88.6%) ( 9.1%) 29 10 4 Negative (65.9%) (22.7%) ( 9.1%) Behavioral Component Number of children 27 8 7 1 1 Positive (61.4%) (18.2%) (15.9%) (2.3%) (2.3%) 18 16 5 2 1 1 Negative (40.9%) (36.4%) (11.4%) (4.5%) (2.3%) (2.3%) Realistic Component Number of children 15 23 3 2 1 Neutral (34.1%) (52.3%) ( 6.8%) (4.5%) (2.3%) 93 different behavioral descriptive evaluations. In the realistic component category, 34.1 percent of the chil- dren had no response, whereas over half of the children (52.3%) made at least one evaluation. The data indicate that more children express negative responses than positive responses about elderly persons in all three components--affective, physical, and behavioral. Children make more negative responses in describing the behavioral component of elderly persons followed by the physical component. Hypothesis 3 HO: Null Hypothesis: There will be no difference in the reported amount of direct contact with the aging and the elderly of preschool children in a Foster Grandparent Day Care Program and preschool children in regular day care facilities. HI: Alternative Hypothesis: Preschool children in the Foster Grandparent Day Care Program (Group A) will evidence greater amount of direct contact with the aging and the elderly than children in regular day care facili- ties (Group B). The statistic used to test the difference between scores of the two groups was a nonparametric difference test, the Wilcoxen t-test. Analysis of the data indicated there was no significant difference between Group A and Group B (p Z .05). Thus, 94 Hypothesis 3 was not supported by the findings in this study. Therefore, the null hypothesis was not rejected for Hypothesis 3. TABLE 5.5 RESULTS OF THE WILCOXEN TEST FOR SCORES OF GROUP A AND GROUP B ON THE AMOUNT OF DIRECT CONTACT WITH ELDERLY PERSONS Mean Rank Mean Rank Groups of of U W 7232:11:;)y Group A Group B 55-65 years Males 22.3 22.7 246.5 499.5 .9140 Females 22.0 23.0 252.0 505.0 .8103 66—75 years Males 22.5 22.5 242.0 495.0 1.000 Females 21.8 23.2 257.5 510.5 .7106 76 years and older Males 22.8 22.2 234.5 487.5 .8535 Females 22.0 23.0 253.0 506.0 .7894 Hypothesis 4 HO: Null Hypothesis: There will be no difference in the response of chil- dren in the Foster Grandparent Day Care Program (Group A) and children in regular day care program (Group B) on feelings about getting old themselves. HI: Alternative Hypothesis: Preschool children in Group A will evidence more positive feelings about getting old themselves than Group B. 95 Scores are tabulated as good, doesn't matter, and bad for Group A and Group B in Table 5.6. A larger per- centage of Group A (36.4%) rated themselves as having a good feeling about getting old whereas 27.2 percent of the children in Group B felt good. Half of the children in Group B (50%) rated the feelings they had about getting old as bad whereas 36.4 percent in Group A rated themselves this way. Children in Group A had more positive feelings about getting old themselves than Group B. TABLE 5.6 DISTRIBUTION OF SCORES FOR GROUP A AND GROUP B ON THE WORD ASSOCIATION SUBTEST ON FEELINGS ABOUT GETTING OLD Feelings Mean Good Doesn't Matter Bad Group A 8 6 8 2.0 Group B 6 5 11 2.23 N = 44 Means and percentages were used as the decision rule for this hypothesis. The group with a larger per- centage of children with more positive scores and a smaller percentage of children with negative scores indi- cated a more positive feeling about getting old them- selves. The null hypothesis for Hypothesis 4 was re- jected. 96 Hypothesis 5 HO: Null Hypothesis: There will be no relationship of the responses of children's perceptions of grandparents to chil- dren's perceptions of elderly persons. HI: Alternative Hypothesis: Children's perceptions of grandparents will show a relationship to children's perceptions of elderly persons. Group A and Group B scores were tabulated and combined to produce a group score about children's per- ceptions of elderly persons and grandparents for each of the ten bipolar adjectives of the semantic differential subtest. Children's perceptual response scores of elderly persons and of grandparents were tested using the nonparametric rank-order Kendall's tau correlational technique. The Kendall's tau statistical indices reflect the direction of the relationship that appears to exist, the tendency toward linear relationship between variables, and the monotonicity of the underlying relation. High positive values suggest that the relation tends to be monotone--increasing, high negative values suggest monotone-~decreasing and small absolute or zero values of these indices suggest either that the two variables are not related at all or that the form of the relation 97 is monotone (Hayes, 1973). The Kendall tau findings are shown in Table 5.7. TABLE 5.7 KENDALL'S TAU C SHOWING CONCORDANCE ON CHILDREN'S PER- CEPTIONS OF ELDERLY AND GRANDPARENTS ON THE BIPOLAR ADJECTIVES OF THE SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL Bipolar Adjectives Coefficient Indices Significance Good-Bad .1072 .104 Happy—sad .0336 .374 Right-wrong .1304 .138 Wonderful-terrible 0 .500 Pretty-ugly .0785 .210 Friendly-unfriendly .1950 .016* Clean-dirty .1550 .061** Rich-poor .0801 .219 Healthy-sick -.0555 .295 Helpful-harmful .0785 .155 * Significant at the .05 level. ** Tendency towards the significance. Only on one pair of the bipolar adjectives, friendly-unfriendly, was there a significant tendency of concordance between children's perceptions of elderly persons and children's perceptions of grandparents. Therefore, the null hypothesis, Hypothesis 5, is only partially supported. The bipolar adjectives, clean- dirty, have a tendency toward significance. The interesting negative coefficient value -.0555 for the bipolar adjectives healthy-sick suggests that an increase in the value of X domain is accompanied by a decrease in 98 the value of Y (Monotone-decreasing). The zero value of the bipolar adjectives wonderful-terrible suggests either that the two variables are not related at all or that the form of the relation is nonmonotone (a function that plots as a parabola). Thus, the null hypothesis for Hypothesis 5 was not entirely rejected. Additional Statistical Tests to Further Evaluate the Data Since the null hypothesis (Hypothesis 5) was not entirely rejected, a further look at the data was neces- sary. Cross Tabulation Children's perceptual response scores of elderly persons and of grandparents were cross tabulated for each bipolar adjective. The cross tabulations for each are found in Tables 5.8 - 5.17. Sign Test of the Profile Pattern The sign test of the profile pattern was also carried out and is shown in Figure 5.2. The probability that all of the response medians of children's perceptions of grandparents would consis- tently fall to one side of all of the response means of children's perceptions of elderly persons is P = .001 (a no cross-over pattern). Children's perceptions of grandparents were consistently more positive than 99 TABLE 5.8 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR- count ROW Pg? COL P T TOT PEI 1 CSEMPIO ADJECTIVES, GOOD-BAD CSEMGRI I i Z 1 I 2 I- 3 I u I s I g 00.2 I 0 g 5.9 I 5.9 i 0 I #209 I 0 10000 I 10000 0 I I 3901 E 0 I 203 i 203 I 0 I z :1 I 2 0 i 0 I 1 i é 70.5 I 10.3 I 0 0 I 7.1 I g 31.0 I 50.0 I 0 I 0 I 3.3 I : 25.0 I 0.5 I 0 I 0 i 2.3 I i 0 i 1 0 0 0 i I 0 I 120:0 I 0 I 0 I 0 § § 3 i2 i I ° i 3 I -f--.-.-.-I-o--:---unsung-niuconcuuclcoupon--1 I 6 I 0 I 0 0 I 1 I E 850 7 I 0 I 0 I 8 I 1903 I _ 17.: i 0 f 0 I I 33.3 I - 1 0 0 0 I 0 I 203 I -I-.--...-I-.------I.O------I--------I-------OI I 3 I 1 0 0 i 1 I x 30.0 i 20.0 0 0 20.0 I - 305 Z 0 0 0 I 3303 I I 603 I 203 I 0 I 0 I 203 I 35 h 1 1 3 7905 901 203 203 508 O 40 0!" ~06: 1’! r-z 40 b8 .4 0‘0 P Q~I 1 380 0.0. t 3108 0.0 \1'! N o 0 ON 00 0.. p o g “5 10000 NOTE: CSEMGRI CSEMPIO Childrens' Ratings of Elderly Persons Childrens' Ratings of Grandparents 100 TABLE 5.9 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR- ADJECTIVES, HAPPY-SAD 0550522 couur- : sow Pcr : POH COL P T I To A ror Pg ; 1 i 2 I 3 I u I s I T L I ; 9 I i 1 i 1 0 i 11 .g 31.5 I 0 I 9.: I 9.1 I 0 I 25.0 3 31.0 I 0 I 33.3 I 33.3 I 0 I g 20 . 5 i 0 I 2. 3 2. I 0 i 2 f 5 I 2 i I 0 i 2 10 I 50.0 I 20.0 I 10.0 I 0 I 20.0 I 22.7 I 1702 I 0 I 5000 I I 11.0 g 0 i 5.5 i °~ 3 f u I 1 I 1 I 0 I 0 I 5 g I 55.7 I 15.7 15.; 0 I 0 i 13.5 a: , 1 30 8 I 20001;; 0 I 0 m : 901 I 0 I 0 I I 50. 0 20 0 i2 0 2 I 10 0 i 22 I I7. 2 I 0010 0 I 5229 I 2520 ' ; 1 1. a. I a. 5 g 0 I s I 2. 3 I ‘ 0 0 i 0 i 1 i 7 E 6509 I 0 I 0 0 15.3 1509 I 20.7 I 0 I 0 I 0 I 25.0 I I 13.5 I 0 0 I 0 I 2.3 i cotunn 29 5 3 a 00 TOTAL 6509 110“ 608 605 901 10000 NOTE: CSEMGRZ = Children's Ratings of Grandparents (columns) ‘ CSEMP9 = Children's Ratings of Elderly Persons (rows) 101 TABLE 5.10 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR- ADJECTIVES, RIGHT-WRONG _. .._l.. i .. .. x - .7 r. . . --A.-I -.u —' 0555553 COUNT I on sz I now 009 gr I I0I0L P I i 1 I 2 3 I u I 5 I coup--t-pnnonunlnocnunun' a------I--------I--------I I I 7 I 1 I I I 0 I 3 I I I 55.3 I 5.3 I 5.3 I 0 I 25.0 I 27.3 g 55.3 I 9.1 I 33.3 I 0 I 37.5 I I 1 50 9 I 20 3 I 20 3 I C I 6 0 8 I E I 10.§ 20.0 - 20.0 i 22. E 0 I '5; I 20. 0 E 25.0 I; 0 £5110H§3Z0 3 § ‘00 5 i I00'3", § m -& ----.--- -------- --..--- -------- -------- 3 ' 0 I 0 I I I I 0 I 2 R E 0 I 0 I 50.0 I 50.0 I 0 I 0.5 g I 0 I 0 I 33.3 I 10. 0 I c I u E 0 I 1 I 1“ 2 0 31 5 I 25.0 32.:§ 0 I a; I 12.5 I ' I 5.5 9 1 0 13.5 .3 I 5 i 2 I I I 0 I 1 I 2 I 5 ; 35.; I 13.7 g I 13.; I :3. g I 13.5 E «:5 g 23% 0_ i 213 1 u.§_ i OLUMN ‘ I2 11 3 10 ‘ 5 00 TOTAL 27.3 .25.0 5.5 22.7 15.2 100.0 NOTE: CSEMGRB = Children's Ratings of Grandparents (columns) CSEMPB = Children's Ratings of Elderly Persons (rows) 102 TABLE 5.11 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR- ADJECTIVES, WONDERFUL-TERRIBLE CSEMGR” COUNT I as: 23;: 7392.. 107 P.T f 1 I 2 I 3 I u I - 8 3 3 3' . i 39:: I gum ' f o I 3 i *'1 z -i-.--.E--§----1§--I-c---;--I----u;--§ 10 I 60.0 I 20.0 I 10.0 I 10.0 I 22.7 I 1 o I 50.0 I 50.0 I o I I 1 3. 6 I u. 5 I 2. 3 2. 3 I .‘ ”DC.--- ---.---. -----.-- -----.-- F 3 I 2 I o I I I I u % I 50.0 I o I 25.0 I 25.0 I 9.1 If! I 5 o 7 I 0 I 5 0. D i 330 3 I m é “05 I 0 I 20 2.3 I 5 I 1 7 I I 0 I 0 I 15 g i 38'3‘ I g: 3} 3 i ' -If-m1.-12.-1---..2.. noon-EO-I-uuunccul 5 I g! 0 1 8 g a 7. 5 I n 12.: v 18 . 2 -§0:g I I a 33. 3 ”I I 0 I D I o I TOTRL 7905 9013.5 606 10000 NOTE: CSEMGR4 = Children's Ratings of Grandparents (columns) CSEMP7 = Children's Ratings of Elderly Persons (rows) 103 TABLE 5.12 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR- ADJECTIVES, PRETTY-UGLY CSEMGPS pgaUsIT-z COL PST 5 IOIAL TOT PCT ; 1 I 2 I a I s i 1 i 16 I 2 0 1 f 90.2 I 10.5 I 0 I 5.3 I 03.2 I “8.5 I 28.6 I 0 I 100.0 I I 36.4 I “05 I 0 I 203 I 2 I 5 I 3 I D I 0 I 8 2 I 22-2 I a I s I f 1120 I 5:0 I 0 I 0 I \O -1.----.---I---.----I-O------I--.-----I g 3 I 2 I 0 I 1 I 0 I 3 m .I. 66.7 I 0 33.3 I 0 I 5.0 m I 6.1 I D 33.3 I 0 I U I “a I 0 203 I 0 ' I I 5000 I 2500 I 25.0 I 0 I '901 I 6.1 I 19.3 I 33.3 I 0 I I “.5 I 2.3 I 2.3 I 0 I - Q;-o--.---§-0-.----i--.-----¥-nnuoaouI 10 ’ i 00.0 I 10.0 I 10.0 I 0 I 22.7 I 25.2 I 1Qo3 I 33.3 I 8 I COLUMN ' 33 7 3 00 TOTAL 75.0 1509 5.3 20% 10008 NOTE: CSEMGRS = Children's Ratings of Grandparents (columns) CSEMP6 = Children's Ratings of Elderly Persons (rows) . 104 TABLE 5.13 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR- ADJECTIVES, FRIENDLY-UNFRIENDLY ~0300590 COUNT - ow p~r : pow 01 057 ; TOTAL 1 i 10 I c I 0 I 0 I 0 I 1 I 100.0 I 0 I 0 I 0 I 0 I 31.0 I 41.2 I 0 I 0 I 0 I 0 I g 31 0 8 § 0 I 0 E 0 i ---E I 2 I e I 2 I 0 I 1 I 0 I I 6607 I 220; I 0 I 11.1 I D I 2005 g 1 o 6 I b5. I 0 f 330 3 I D I g; 3 i 3 I 0 1 0 0 I u m I 75.0 I 0 $5.0 0 0 f 9.1 m I 0. 0 I 0 0. 0 0 0 L) g 0.0 I 0 I 2.3 I 0 I 0 I k I 5506 I 1101 1101 I 1101 I 1101 I 2005 : 14.7 I 33.3 I 50.0 I 33.3 I 50.0 I 5 i e I 0 I 0 1 I 1 0 : 75.0 I 0 I 0 I 12.5 I 12.5 I 10.2 g 17.6 I 0 I 0 I 33.3 I 50.0 I OLUHM ‘ 3h 3 2 3 2 an IOTA. 7703 508 h.5 608 “05 10000 NOTE: CSEMGRG = Children's Ratings of Grandparents (columns) ‘ CSEMPS = Children's Ratings of Elderly Persons (rows) 105 TABLE 5 . l4 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR- ADJECTIVES, CLEAN-DIRTY couur Icsrncnr now PDT I P0H COL p T I TOTAL TOT 9E? :5 1 1 2 I 3 I b I g”; - -1- * 15 I 2 I o I u I 1 I 15 i 83.3 I 11.1 I c 1 o I of no.9 I 50.0 I 25.0 I g o I 5b i 3u.1 1 u.s I u I o I 2. 3 I Z - ----.;--I h c I o I 8 I so. a I 50.0 I o I 3 I ~ 0 I 18.2 : 13.3 I 50.0 I u I n I o I ; 9. 1 § 0-2. £--I-----2--§-----E--}-----£--§ 3 f 1 I 1 1 I u I o I 3 g 33. 3 I 33.3 I 33.3 I o I o I 6.8 1 3.3 1 1%.; I 103.5 I 3 I o I g u g 1 a I 1 I o I 1 I o I 6 I31 .: 66.7 I 1607 I C I 16.7 I D I 1306 m a 13.3 I 12.5 I a I 33.3 I c U .L 90 1 I 0 I o 0 5 * es 9 I S I E I 222 S I 11 i I' 20 3 3. o o o O : 20 o I o I a I 6.7 ’o n g 13:6 I o I a I 6h. 5 i ’ ' i COLUMN 3g 1 3 2 an TOTAL 63. 1302 203 13.8 “.5 10000 NOTE: CSEMGR? = Children's Ratings of Grandparents (columns) CSEMP4 = Children's Ratings of Elderly Persons (rows) 106 TABLE 5.15 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR- ADJECTIVES, RICH-POOR CSEMGRB COUNF I new 9;? . Pow COL P T I TOTAL TOT pEr ; 1 I 2 I 3 I I. I 5 I 1 I 1:. I 5 c I o I 1 20 I 7000 I 2500 I 0 I 0 I 500 I 9505 I 51.9 I b5o5v I 0 I 0 I 33.3 I g 31.8 I 11.u o I o I 2.3 I -‘----.--.I-------- nun-populcuouonocI--------I 2 E'3 e I 5 I c I 1 I a I 12 I 50.0 I “1.7 I 0 I 8.3 I 0 I 27.3 2 2202 I “5.5 I 0 f 5000 I E f 1 13.6 I 11.u o . I c m 3 I o I 1 I 1 I 2 I I. S I 0 I 0 25.0 i 25.0 I 50.0 I 9.1 m I 0 I 0 10000 5000' I 6607 I g I o I c I 2.3 2. I «.5 I k I 1 I 1 I 0 I 0 i b I 2 I 5030 I 50.0 I U I 0 0 I #35 I 3.7 I 9.1 I o I o I c I I 203 I 203 I D I D I 0 I I I o I o I o I q I 6 I 100.0 I 0 I D I 0 I b I 13.6 ; «2’3'2 I 8 I 3 I 3 I 3 I J» ¢‘ O COLUMN > 27 11 1 2 3 bk TOT‘L 61.“ 25.0 2.3 “.5 6.8 100.0 NOTE: CSEMGRB = Children's Ratings of Grandparents (columns) CSEMPB = Children's Ratings of Elderly Persons (rows) 107 TABLE 5.16 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR- ADJECTIVES, HEALTHY-SICK couut now 5:1 COL PCT TOT p31 1 2 .0 3 m 2 m m U u 5 COLUMN TOTAL ,CSEMGR9 é ; I 1 I 2 3 I u I 5 I 1 1 I 5 I 0 I 0 I 2 I i 6101 I 27.8 I U I 0 I 1101 I i 39.3 I 50.: I D I 0 I 5000 I I I 2 I 0 I 0 I c I I 50.0 I 50.0 I E I 0 I 0 I # 7.1 I 20.3 0 I 0 I 0 I g 0.5 I u. I 0 0 I 0 I I 1 I 3 1 I 0 I 0 I . 50.0 I I 50.0 I 0 I 0 I I 3.6 I 0 I 100.0 0 I 0 I I 2.3 I 0 I 2.3 I 0 I 0 I * a I 2 I 0 I 1 I 0 I I 57.1 I 20.5 I 0 1u.3 0 I I 1u.3 I 20.0 I 0 I 100.0 I 0 I E 9.1 I «.5 I 0 2.3 I 0 I I I 1 I 0 I 0 2 I I 76.9 I 7.7 I 0 I 0 I 15.0 I 5 35.7 I 10. 0 I 0 f 50.0 I e 22. I .3 0 0 «.5 63.6 22.7 2.3 2.3 9.1 .4 OT) -40 PI. r : O> ..¢ \0 'fih) h. 7 15.9 13 29.5 R“ 100.0 NOTE: CSEMGR9 = Children's Ratings of Grandparents (columns) CSEMPZ = Children's Ratings of Elderly Persons (rows) 108 TABLE 5.17 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF GRANDPARENTS AND ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR- ADJECTIVES, HELPFUL-HARMFUL -CSEMGRIO COUNT I RON PST I POW COL Pgt I TO’AL TOT p.r I 1 I 2 I . u I s I 1 I 23 I 1 I D I 1 I 25 I 92.0 I 0.0 I 0 I u.0 I 56.8 I 62.2 I 25.0 I 0 100.0 I ‘3: 5203 I 203 I C“ I 203 I f 60.0 I 50.0 I c I 0 I 13.6 I 0.1 I 72.0 I 0 I c I =_'. 60 6 I 50 8 I C I G I g I 100.0 I 3 I u I 0 I 2.3 m I o I 0 I G I 0 I U) I 03 I G I G I 0 I a I 1 I 0 1 - o 2 ; 5000 I C I 5000 I 0 I “95 I 2.7 I 0 I 5 0. C I 0 I y 2.3 I 0 2.3 0 I -- bun-ooouLooanunuu .n--.-.- --------I 5 I 9 I 0 I 1 I 0 I 10 J. 90.0 I D I 10.0 I 0 I 22.7 I 2‘00 3 I G I 50. G I 0 I I 20.5 I c I 2.3 I 0 I TOTDL 8&01 9.1 “.5 203 10900 NOTE: CSEMGRlO = Children's Ratings of Grand- parents (columns) CSEMPl = Children's Ratings of Elderly Persons (rows) Semantic Differential Scale 109 l 2 3 4 5 Helpful 0 Harmful Healthy' \\ \\ Sick 4”—_— ‘—R—' "——' ‘———' '———‘ Rich 1 X: Poor Clean i I Dirty Friendly \} Unfriendly Pretty Ugly IF—‘ —_'_" —"_- _ —— Wonderful {I Terrible Right ‘ Wrong Happy Sad Good Bad '——e—- Grandparents o----o Elderly Fig. 5.2. Persons and Grandparents (p = The Sign Test of the Profile Pattern of Median Responses of Children's Perceptions of Elderly .001). 110 children's perceptions of elderly. The difference between children's ratings of grandparents and elderly persons on the positive side of the right-wrong pair of adjectives was very small. Hypothesis 6 HO: Null Hypothesis: There will be no difference in children's perceptual responses about elderly persons and parents' responses about the elderly. HI: Alternative Hypothesis: Children's perceptual responses about elderly persons will show a difference from parents' responses about the elderly. The Wilcoxen t-test for two matched samples was used to test the hypothesis that the two populations represented by the respective members of matched pairs, parents and children, are identical. The sign difference between each parent-child dyad observation was found. Then, these differences were rank-ordered in terms of their absolute size, and the sign of the difference was attached to the rank for their difference. The final data for the Wilcoxen Matched Pairs, Signed Rank Test are shown in Table 5.18. This test refers to the hypothesis that two population distributions of unspe- cified form are exactly alike. Thus, the null hypothesis of Hypothesis 6 was not rejected. This implied that 111 the population did not necessarily differ and, there— fore, further analysis was warranted. TABLE 5.18 WILCOXEN MATCHED PAIRS t-TEST FOR PARENT-CHILD PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS _ Probability Rank +Rank Z (2-tailed) Total N = 44 18.1 25.9 -l.774 .0761 Additional Information Sign Test of the Profile Pattern Group A and Group B scores were tabulated and combined to produce a group score about children's per- ceptions of elderly persons on each of the bipolar adjec- tives of the semantic differential subtest. The parents' scores were also tabulated and combined to form a group score about parents' perceptions of elderly persons. The sign test of the profile pattern is shown in Figure 5.3. The probability that all of the median responses of children's perceptions of elderly persons would con- sistently fall to one side of all of the median responses of parental perceptions of elderly persons was P = .055. This was an occurrence of eight out of ten bipolar adjectives. Parents' perceptions of elderly on the semantic differential were more positive on eight bipolar 112 Semantic Differential Scale 1 2 3 4 5 Helpful Healthy Rich Friendly Clean Pretty Wonderful Right Happy Good '—-————° Parents 0 ------ 0 Children Harmful Sick Poor Unfriendly Dirty Ugly Terrible Wrong Sad Bad Fig. 5.3. The Sign Test of the Profile Pattern of Median Responses of Children's Perceptions of Elderly Persons and Parental Perceptions of Elderly Persons. 113 adjectives than the children's perceptions. The eight bipolar adjectives were helpful—harmful, healthy-sick, rich-poor, friendly-unfriendly, clean-dirty, pretty- ugly, wonderful-terrible, and happy-sad. Children's perceptions of elderly persons were more positive on the evaluation dimensions of right—wrong and good-bad than parents' perceptions. This supports findings in child development. Piaget (1932) believed that the child sees rules as external absolutes and feels that parents and other adults are all knowing, perfect, and sacred. Also, according to Kohlberg (1964) this attitude of unilateral respect toward adults, joined with the child's "realism" is believed to lead the child to View rules as sacred and unchangeable. Therefore, the young child views an act as either totally right or totally wrong. If the young child recognizes a conflict in views, the child believes the adult's view is always the right one. This probably accounts for the more positive view of elderly by the children on the right-wrong and good-bad dimen— sions. Kendall's tau Correlational Technique A nonparametric rank-order correlational statis— tic, Kendall's tau, was used to test the relationship between children's perceptions of elderly persons and 114 parents' perceptions of elderly persons. The findings of the data are reported in Table 5.19. Of the ten bipolar adjectives in the semantic differential, the parents' score and children's score showed a tendency for a rela— tionship about the perceptions of elderly persons on four evaluative dimensions--helpful-harmful, healthy-sick, clean— dirty, and pretty-ugly. Indications are that parents have an influence on their children's perceptions of elderly persons, however, they are not completely influential. TABLE 5.19 KENDALL'S TAU C SHOWING "CONCORDANCE" ON CHILDREN'S PER- CEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS AND PARENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS Bipolar Adjectives Coefficient Indices Significance Helpful-harmful -.1846 .056: Healthy-sick -.1928 .058 Rich-poor -.1570 .731 Clean-dirty -.1897 .073* Friendly-unfriendly -.0138 .452 * Pretty-ugly .1612 .0970 Wonderful-terrible .09091 .2235 Right-wrong .06749 .2693 Happy-sad .12397 .1577 Good-Bad .09452 .2240 * Tendency for significance of agreement Cross Tabulations Children's perceptual response scores of elderly persons and parents' perceptual response scores of elderly persons were cross tabulated for each of the 115 bipolar adjective of the semantic differential subtest. The cross tabulations are found in Tables 5.20 - 5.29. The results of Hypothesis 7 and 8 will be reported together. Hypothesis 7 HO: Null Hypothesis: There will be no difference in the responses of children who spend more time with grandparents than those who spend less time with grandparents. HI: Alternative Hypothesis: Children who spend more time with grandparents have a more positive perception of grandparents than those who spend less time with grandparents. Hypothesis 8 HO: Null Hypothesis: There will be no difference in the responses of children who spend more time with grandparents on the perception of elderly persons than those chil- dren who spend less time with grandparents. HI: Alternative Hypothesis: Children who spend more time with grandparents have a more positive perception of elderly persons than those who spend less time with grandparents. The response mean on the semantic differential was compared for the group with most contact with grand- parents and the group with no contact with grandparents on their perceptions of elderly persons and grandparents. 116 TABLE 5.20 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, HELPFUL-HARMFUL PAREVIS COUNT I éS“ m .3931 10% .E. . I I I I .. I 1 I 6 2% I 17 35 3 3 3 I 2520 222 $E’8 I IE 3: I 35's I 1306 1306 I 503 I I 7102 I 2802 I 0 I 3 I 3108 I 107 I 30. B I U I 0 I -i 22.7 I o i 0 I 0 I g I 10203 I D I g I 0 I 203 a I 233 I 8 g 0 i 3 I U u i a I 2 I I I 0 I 7 I 57.; 20's 1Ho3 0 1509 I 16. 15. 25.0 0 I o ‘ “o 2.3 o .1-0--.”-I---..---I-----.--I--------I 5 I 50 3 I Z 1 I 0 i 20 I i 11 I I 1233 I 919 I 3 3323 ' I 6.6 I 2.3 I 0 I o I clan--0---I-.-.--.-Icoop-QCDI-nnunuouI COLUMN 2“ 13 k 3 H“ TOIAL 54.5 29.5 901 6.6 100.0 NOTE: PARENlS = Parents' Ratings (columns) CSEMPl = Children's Ratings (rows) 117 TABLE 5.21 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, HEALTHY-SICK 902E010 cou~r I ROH Pct Row $OL p T IorAL or p T 1 I 2 I 3 1 ' 1 a I 9.1 f 35.0 f 10.5 12 36.; i 25. I 33.3 I 21.1 I 00.0 fi' I I 2. 3 9. 1 I ‘0. 5 §9i 0;; 2 I 1 2 g 10 I 1000 I 2300 I 70:§ I 22.7 33.3 w; 2.3 N -------- ----..-- - -- I--.” ---..2-- 2%: 3 . 3 I § ‘ ‘5 % s 3 I .3 2 : C a I 3 {310.5 {2212.g i o I I b. “ at 9 o. 50.§10.§ 30.§22. '. 33. 3 I 20 3 I 121:: 05 I - -------- £........ ----:---¥ --..---- 5 i 0 g £2 7 I 3105.661~.315.9 I 31. an I 0 II: 13.2 22. 3 a; COLUMN 3 19 5 a TOTAL 6.0 03.2 11.5 38.6100.0 NOTE: PARENl4 = Parents' Ratings (columns) CSEMPZ = Children's Ratings (rows) 118 TABLE 5.22 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, RICH-POOR PAREN1Z coun; I now Pg? 1 now 001 9,1 I 10101 TOT 9.! 1 2 i 3 1 5 i 1 i 2 2 12 ; $6.3: $3.0 I 22.153.7 i 27.3 g a: :1{1:Z.:7% “:3 § 2 3 3 0 19 I 10.311&0 3 22. m ;- 20 3 § 26: 8 I 13: 5- -1 I! I E 3 1 . o "'1 g; m .l o 50:; 50 o I! '00 5 0 ¥ 31 2' 3 2'; I k E 7 1 35 57 “a 0 311: 1 12:3 2* ”331% i a * ' f 50.0 I 15.7 .3 i 0 i 13.6 I kg:g i; 39: 1 i a; COLUMN 7 00 TOTAL 15.9 29.5 50.0 9.5 100.0 NOTE: PARENlZ = Parents' Ratings (columns) CSEMP3 = Children's Ratings (rows) 119 TABLE 5.23 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, FRIENDLY-UNFRIENDLY PAREN11 283”}:11 i 1! RD“ 01 P $07 29; i 1 g 2 i 3 § TOTAL ---.---------.-- -------. -------- 1 I 0 I 5 2 5 1 23-2 1 :1-3 f 13-3 i O I 10.2 I 11:: «:5 I z 53% 2003 3000 220 1 10.2 EEG 60.0 I E; 3 1 u I u 3 100.0 I I I 9.1 U i 14.3 1;; 9.1 a f 71 3 I 26 6 0 I 15 7 1 1729 i 18:2 8: 0 ¥ '9 _§ 11.1 § 6.5 I 0 I sirsfifzsfif Bins? O i 21.0 I 10:2 I 0 I ° _§_ 13.6 i 1.5 0 } co UHN 20 "§-' 33101 63.6 25.0 11.0 100?3 NOTE: PARENll = Parents' Ratings (columns) CSEMP4 = Children's Ratings (rows) 120 TABLE 5 . 24 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, CLEAN-DIRTY coun 902219 ROH pér I RON 001 P T I TOTAL 70T 957 ¥ 1 I 2 I 3 I 1. I 1 I I 2 i 3 g 19 I 17.9 I 92.1 I 10.5 13.2 .1 4+0. I ‘07. I 6607 I n I g 2065 i 16.2 i “.5 .. 0 i 2 .. 3 I g 0 I ‘060 I 3765 I 1205 U I 1502 I 16.2 I 17.6 33.3 0 wimgst 3131.: 2 13'6 t ° fl 3 6:6 I 3 g 8 I U ' -I----.;--§-------., -------- -------- u ‘ I 25.0 I 25. i 3 50.5 9.1 I 6.5 I 5.9 0 100.0 I 2.3 I 2.3 I 0 I 9.5 I 5 i 5 f 0 i 1 I 50.0 I 50.3 0 3 I 22. ' 22.7 I 29.9 I 0' I 0 § 11.9 I 11.9 I 0 0 COLUMN 22 17 ' 3 2 99 TOTAL 50.0 36.6 6.6 9.5 100.0 NOTE: PAREN9 CSEMPS Parents' Ratings (columns) Children's Ratings (rows) 121 TABLE 5.25 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, PRETTY-UGLY COUNT IPARENB R u p~ now 081 96; I TOTAL ' 6 2 2 I 19 l i 330%: {E63 é§.§ §§363 I 310. I 1632 3 I 3 2i - 33- I z i .5 g‘ * 2.2 I §i 303: 3?; g ' ‘° I 0 50:0 25.0 25.0 i 9.1 § 012.5 6.7 g I 0 I I 2.3 I U - -.--.--- -------- ---.. .--- -------- 1 1 g a g . b i 1161 I 55.2 I 1101 2262 2065 I 10.0 I 25.0 I 12.5 I 33.3 I 5 I 2 0 I 6 I 1265 .0 I 0 I 1502 ; 1g: 3% 25:? %g i a i COLUHN 10 6 69 TOTAL 22.7 65.5 16.2 13.6 100.0 NOTE: PAREN8 CSEMP6 Parents' Ratings (columns) *Children's Ratings (rows) 122 TABLE 5.26 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, WONDERFUL-TERRIBLE PIRENb COUNT I RON PE; 3 ROM COL P TOTAL TOT P T 1 I I 3 I h I -----;-- no... -1---i----.:-dt-----;--I--.-----I i5 66.; 226 g i gt61 g 8369 5761 I 25.; 0 6O 2 i 2 f *1 . f a g . I 2560 I 3765 1265 2560 1862 I 965 I 2060 256 I 5060 I " 3 3 1 3 o I e 6 E 3 3:3 I 3.3 33:3 I 3 f ' U1 E 263 I I 0 f U - ----.“- ----..--- ---.:--- -------- 6 I 16.: I5 $3 I 336% I 8 I 1366 5 I 5 I O I O I 3 g 33:: I 25:; ¥ 8 g 8 g 2“ 116“ I “O O 0 TOTAL “70’ 3~01901 961 10060 NOTE: PAREN6 = Parents' Ratings (columns) CSEM? = Children's Ratings (rows) 123 TABLE 5.27 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, RIGHT-WRONG couu TPARENS ROH PET ? Row COL P.T i 2 I torAL 1 1 13 g 0 i I 5.0 I 65.0 20.0 10.; a: 65% I 100.0 I 60.1 I 30.0 I 663 2 f I 12 I 3 I 3%.: 27.3 ¥ 0 f 13:6 -iuoconnlooauouoo uncunuc cc”---- 3 I 0 g; a g I 0 75.0 I 9.1 i 3 , g: I O k z 31 I 10 .0 I E a i is; 3.! s . g; i 3 f gig: i I fig 15.; 0 COLUMN 1 10701 2.3 61.1 29.5 6.0 100.0 NOTE: PARENS CSEMPB Parents' Ratings (columns) Children's Ratings (rows) 124 TABLE 5.28 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, HAPPY-SAD PAREN3 COUNT I now PST I RON COL PCT I TOTAL 1 I a 10 I 2202 I #5081101 “009 53.0 I 50.0 25.0 33.? I o I 150 21* 2 i 1 1 0 I 0 25. .2 I 25.0 50.0 3 I 9.1 ’ 1 2.} .3 25.0 a! I 2.3 2.3 0 m 3 0 0 2 g ' 3 § 100. 0.5 g g 0 I I 0 _. I 1 a: i i , k g 10.3 I 62.9 19.5 20.6 15.9 12.5 I 18.8 I 12.5 I 16.7 I i 2'3 f 5" 2:3--{---2:§--§ 5 I 2 I a I 3 13 15.0 I 30.0 I 23.1 I 30.3 I 29.5 I 25.g 25.0 3.5 33.3 E “I O 6. a - 2. - COLUMN 0 16 0 00 TOTAL 10.2 36.b 10.2 27.3 100.0 NOTE: PAREN3 CSEMP9 Parents' Ratings (columns) Children's Ratings (rows) 125 TABLE 5.29 CROSS TABULATIONS OF CHILDREN'S RATINGS AND PARENTS' RATINGS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS ON THE BIPOLAR-ADJECTIVES, GOOD-BAD PARENZ noun; I 333 3*; I ngxL 131 P57 I 1 I 2 g 3 i I 721310 2 I 25 §% «0.0 i 23.2 i 56.0 I 5;; I 22:; I 9:5 i Z i- k I 8 g 2 6 66 7 I 33 3 1032 I 0 28:6 I ‘3'5 i 9.1 E B I “05 I - ”--.“- -------. ---..--- o 3 . I . g 1 g I 0 I 100.2 0 2.3 a I g I 5: g I U} . cpucouo -ccnncud nun--0-- L’ h 0 I 1 i g I 50:: 5g:g I “.5 , g a s 1:. , ¢§§‘3¥2§é§f 2531' .i-..-:..-1-....:-.o D.-----.I COLUMN 22 as TOTAL 50 .0 350:150910000 NOTE: PARENZ = Parents' Ratings (columns) CSEMPIO = Children's Ratings (rows) 126 The data are shown in Table 5.30. The lower the mean score the more positive are their perceptions. 0 TABLE 5.30 THE MEAN PERCEPTUAL SCORES OF CHILDREN WHO HAVE MOST CONTACT AND LESS CONTACT Grou Elderly Persons Grandparents p Mean Score Mean Score Most Contact 3.65 1.05 Less Contact 1.3 1.26 Thus, the null hypothesis of Hypothesis 7 was rejected. The null hypothesis of Hypothesis 8 was not rejected. Findings indicate that children who have most contact with grandparents have more negative views of elderly persons and a more positive view of grandparents than children who have less contact with grandparents. The mean scores for the children with least contact with grandparents show that their perceptions of the elderly are very similar to their mean score of their perceptions of grandparents. An interesting phenomenon was the finding that all the children with most contact with grandparents rated both the elderly person as well as grandparents Very Sad on the bipolar adjective Happy-Sad. Whereas all the children with least contact with grandparents rated the grandparent Very happy and only one child 127 rated the elderly person as very sad. All others also rated the elderly person as Very Happy on the bipolar adjective Happy-Sad. The implications derived from these data need further study. Additional Information Further analysis of the data derived from the CATE was necessary to get a more complete picture of children who have most contact with grandparents and of those who have least contact with grandparents about their perceptions of the elderly. To provide descriptive answers for the hypotheses, a description and discussion of the various data on the CATE instrument are reported for each of the subjects. The children's mean response scores on the Word Associ- ation Subtest, Semantic Differential Subtest, and Con- crete Representation Subtest were analyzed to assess the differences in perceptual responses of children who had most contact with grandparents as opposed to children who had no contact with grandparents. There were two children, one boy, six years old, and one girl, four years old, who saw all their living grandparents at least once each day. There were three six-year-old boys who never saw any of their living grandparents and, therefore, had the least contact with grandparents. 128 Word Association Subtest Answers How the Children Answered the Statements: "Tell me about old peOple" and "How would you feel when you are old?" Children with Most Contact Subject l--Girl: "They squeeze me, when they hug me. They are not new, their faces are real old. They are bad and turn into old people and they are wrong. They hit me. My grandma hurts me and puts me to bed. She babysits me and never lets me watch TV." "I don't want to get old. I will feel bad." Subject 2--qu: "They have heart attacks and die. They walk slow. Their skin is bumpy. They have whitish, greyish hair." "I will feel sad." Children with Least Contact Subject l--Boy: "Well old people are sometimes poor, and have no food and have to hunt for them. Sometimes old people are alone. If they are on welfare, they have no money. They have grey hair and beards. Sometimes they sleep on cots, they have no beds to sleep on and sometimes they sleep on the floors. Some old people are nice and some are mean." "I will feel bad, cuz you don't have food." Subject 2--Boy: "Because there's old, old hair." "I will feel bad." 129 Subject 3-—Boy: "Sometimes they need crutches. They go to church. Sometimes they shake. Some- times they have heart attacks. Some are little, some are big. They have old people all around the world. They have grey hair." "I will feel sad, I like to be young. I don't want to die." Findings on the Word Associ- ation Subtest Children with most contact did not differ in mean responses from children with least contact on the affec- tive, physical, and behavioral components. However, the difference occurred in the realistic component. The group with the least contact had approximately four times more neutral descriptive evaluations. This could be accounted for by the differences in ages of the children and supports previous findings in the review of the literature that older children are less global in their perceptions. There were no differences in the total responses for each group. To the question, "How would you feel when you are old?", all the children answered "bad" or "sad." There was no difference in their responses to that question. 130 Findings on the Subtest-- Concrete Representations Answers to questions: "What things would you help this person do?" "What things could this person help you do?" Children with Most Contact Subject l--Girl: She points to a lady. "She will take me to the store. She will talk to me. She will put me to bed." "She can come to my house and spend the night. She can take me swimming. She can buy me a new bathing suit." Shejpoints to a man: "I can help him when he has hard stuff to do. I can help him make a dog house with a dog inside. "He can take me swimming and go in the water with me. Pick me up and throw me in. He can watch me when I go to deep water." Subject 2--Boy: He points to a lady: "Rake her leaves, mow her lawn, pick flowers for her, get coffee and stuff for her, buy groceries for her." He points to a man: "He can give me some money, take me to a place where you can find sand dollars. Just love me!!" 131 Children with Least Contact Subject l-—Boy: points to a man: "I go get the police to help him or else take him home with me or else tell Mom where he could live. I could go get a doctor for him. He doesn't like to live where it's poor and he should." "He can be nice to me. He can help me write numbers. He can take me to the beach to find shells. He can teach me how to make sand castles. He can teach me how to make dishes with clay." The subject was asked what he could do with the elderly females (examiner points to females). The subject answered, "I don‘t know." Subject 2--Boy: He points to a man: "I would play with him football." He points to a lady. "I fix her some food." "She can fix me food." Subject 3--Boy: He points to man: "Get him something he wants." Points to lady: "She can be with me. Buy me something like a toy. Build me a playhouse." 132 Discussion of Findings Children who have most contact with grandparents mention more things they can do with and for elderly persons of both sexes than children who have the least contact. This supports Piaget's Cognitive Theory. As the children acquired more experiences with the elderly, the global interpretations of elderly persons were dif- ferentiated, specified, and integrated into their under- standing of the elderly person. Therefore, the child with the most contact evaluated and described the elderly person in more detail than the child who had the least contact. 133 Hypotheses Decision Rule The Null Hypothesis Was: Hl: There will be no difference in the Not Rejected responses of preschool children in a Foster Grandparent Day Care Program (Group A) perceptions toward the aging and the elderly and the preschool children in regular day care facili— ties (Group B). H2: There will be no difference in the Not Rejected variety of perceptions in the responses of preschool children in a Foster Grand- parent Day Care (Group A) toward the aging and the elderly and the preschool children in regular day care facili- ties (Group B). H3: There will be no difference in the Not Rejected reported amount of direct contact with the aging and the elderly of preschool children in a Poster Grandparent Day Care Program and preschool children in regular day care facilities. H4: There will be no difference in the Rejected response of children in the Foster Grandparent Day Care Program and children in regular day care programs on feelings about getting old themselves. H5: There will be no relationship in the Rejected responses of children's perceptions of grandparents and children's per- ceptions of elderly persons. H6: There will be no difference in children's Not Rejected perceptual responses about elderly per- sons and parents' responses about the elderly. H7: There will be no difference in the responses Not Rejected of children who spend more time with grandparents than those children who spend least time with grandparents. H8: There will be no difference in the responses Rejected of parents on their perception of elderly persons than those children who spend less time with grandparents. Fig. 5.4. Summary of Hypotheses Tested and the Decision Rule. CHAPTER VI SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS Children enrolled in a Foster Grandparent Day Care Program and children in regular day care facilities did not differ in their perceptions concerning the elderly person. Neither did the groups differ in their variety of perceptions or the amount of contact with elderly persons. However, the children did differ in their feelings about getting old. More children in the regular day care facilities expressed their feelings as "bad" when they viewed the prospects of getting old themselves. Children's perceptions of grandparents and per- ceptions of elderly persons showed no relationship on the semantic differential except for one dimension. The scores on the bipolar adjectives friendly-unfriendly showed that children's perceptions of grandparents were in agreement with children's perceptions of elderly persons. 134 135 Children's perceptions about elderly persons were not different from parental perceptions. There were tendencies for agreement in relationships in four out of the ten bipolar items on the Kendall tau. The results from this section indicated that parents did influence children's perceptual responses about elderly persons. Although children have little knowledge of older people in our society, children who had the most contact with elderly persons were able to describe and discuss more things they could do with and for elderly persons than children who had least contact. The more negative evaluations of older persons by those children having more contact with elderly persons may be a matter of cognitive development from a global state to one of greater differentiation and specification (Scarlet, Press, and Crockett, 1971). The children were using surface cues, basically physical and behavioral, to classify and categorize elderly persons. In a previous study by Jantz, Seefeldt, Galper, and Serock (1976), these physical and behavioral cues were oftentimes scored as negative rather than positive by coders because the particular society or researcher had clas- sified these characteristics as negatives. White hair, having wrinkles, walking slow, and sometimes shaking are not necessarily negative descriptions; they only 136 become so when society looks at these traits as negative. The child in fact was seeing cues from which he formed his opinions for classification and clarification. Therefore, this investigator cannot conclude by report- ing that children's perceptions of elderly persons were negative. There was a mixture of positive, realistic as well as negative perceptions of the elderly. The sample consisted of forty-four parent-child dyads from three day care facilities in the Lansing, Michigan district. The children from the center with a Foster Grandparent Program formed Group A and children from two regular day care facilities with no elderly aides present during the day formed the contrast Group B. The design of this study was based on the static— group comparison. To minimize some of the differences between Group A and Group B, some controls in the selection of the center were implemented such as choos- ing centers that had a sliding scale for rates and choosing centers that were located within the inner city limits. Data from the children were obtained by the use of a modified version of the CATE, Children's Attitudes Toward the Elderly by Jantz, Seefeldt, Galper, and Serock (1976). A parent questionnaire designed by the investigator was used to obtain data on the demographic profile of the families and grandparents, attitudes of 137 parents toward elderly persons, and general information on human and nonhuman learning resources in the child's environment. Mothers were the primary respondents (93.2%) to the parent questionnaire. The statistical procedures used to test the dif- ferences in the scores were the Wilcoxen t-test, Kendall tau, Wilcoxen matched t-test, sign profile pattern test, cross tabulations, and means. The alpha level of sig- nificance was set at .05 as a basis for the decision to reject the null hypothesis which was analyzed by using inferential statistics. Descriptive data as well as means were also used to further evaluate the data. Descriptive Conclusions The descriptive conclusions, based upon the find— ings from the administration of the CATE, will be dis- cussed under the general questions asked. What Do Children Know About Elderly Persons? When children were asked what they knew about old people, children responded with descriptions such as, They get big as the sky; they have a stick to walk with; sometimes they have lots of wrinkles; they wear more clothes to keep warm; sometimes they don't have a car because they can't drive; their veins show; they have white hair; they don't look new. One five-year-old girl said: Grandma has grey hair but wears a wig so we can't tell she has grey hair. My other grandma died. 138 I start dreaming about old people when I see them, and their voice sounds old. Another four-year-old girl said: They sigh and goes to bed early. One five-year-old boy said: Some could die. They put mail in the mail box. They get sick and they take medicine. They break a leg and go to the hospital. They wash hands before dinner and use soap. It would be worthwhile to have witnessed all the happen— ings this child encountered with elderly persons. This child may be revealing all the events he is trying to sort out and classify regarding his perceptions of old peOple. Children indicate by their answers that their knowledge of elderly persons is complex and often based on behavioral and physical cues. How Do Children Feel About Elderly Persons? Children have a positive feeling for their grand- parents and a less positive feeling for elderly persons in general. Children who had spend most time with grandparents viewed other elderly persons with less positive perceptions than other children. Children who spent the least amount of time with grandparents viewed grandparents and elderly persons similarly. This supports the theory that children's perceptions are global in nature, and with more experiences and 139 contacts these global perceptions become differentiated, specified, and integrated (Langer, 1970). Before being shown concrete representations of elderly persons, 43.2 percent of the children perceived growing old as negative. A greater number of children, 56.8 percent, perceived growing old as positive or as neither positive nor negative. However, after looking at the picture of elderly persons on the cover of a magazine, 54.5 percent of the children perceived growing old as negative and 45.4 percent said positive or it didn't matter. There was just a slight change in the scores after the representations were shown. What Contacts Do Children Have with Elderly Persons? It seems that children have very limited contact with elderly persons. More children saw elderly females each day than elderly males. Only a few children (three) saw elderly females seventy-six years and over each day. No children saw elderly males seventy-six years and over. Most children (86.4%) saw their grandparent(s) at least once each week. Parents have difficulty assessing elderly-child interaction. Data indicate that 11.4 percent of the parent respondents were not even aware of the elderly volunteers at the day care centers in which their child was enrolled. It appears parents have very limited 140 knowledge of what happens at the day care centers. Parents also reported very low contact frequencies between their child and other elderly persons from the child's social environment. Whether this finding indi— cates low elderly-child contact or that parents are not aware of the child's experiences is a question that needs to be answered in order to help explain the child's perceptions. Children indicate a variety of activities they could do to help elderly persons. Children responded with statements such as: Help her put on her necklace; do the dishes; play with her; help him be careful with the plates; make him happy; paint his house for him; I put toys away when I'm done playing so she won't have to put them away; get her some food; help her with the groceries; get her a frigerator, a stove and some chairs; go buy flowers for her; if he taught me all those things and couldn't do it anymore, I would do it for him; help him saw, chop down trees and hammer wood; could fix her up, if her heart stops; [and quite a few children replied] I don't know. Children also indicated a variety of activities that elderly persons could help the children do such as: She can help me make things; she can fix lunch; can fix the car then I let her fix the patio; then if she won't do it, I kick her; he can tickle me; teach me how to make money; teach me how to read books; give me some money to buy sunglasses. One three-year-old boy said: He can teach me to play football and basketball like Erwin Johnson. 141 Another five-year-old boy answered: She can kiss me goodnight. The descriptive data show that children's perceptions of elderly persons are egocentric. The perceptions are not just a matter of stereotypes that the child has been influenced by, but also involve some previous understanding of the elderly person's role. Implications for Future Research As a result of this study, the investigator recommends further research of three types: (1) research that is similar to this study but aimed at increasing the knowledge base about children's perceptions of persons; (2) research which is generally similar but which eliminates some of the limitations of this study; and (3) research that is very similar but cross cultural in design. Research Related Closely to This Study 1. The study should be repeated using a planned curriculum intervention of elderly persons into a day care setting with a quasi-experimental pretest post-test design. 2. The study should be repeated using a larger sample of preschool children controlling for race, sex, and socioeconomic status. 142 The study should be repeated contrasting an urban and rural sample of children. The study should be set up so that an interview and observation procedures are used rather than a questionnaire instrumentation. The goal would be to see if parents are better able to recall certain indirect experiences of their children using the probing technique which may be utilized when using an interview. Observations may reveal other kinds of data. The study should be repeated recording on tape all the children's responses to the questions found in the CATA. If research on children's perceptions about elderly persons is to continue, the instruments will need to be refined. More reliability and validity measures should be carried out especially in coding the open-ended questions on both instruments. Research Related to Increasing the Knowledge Base Using the same sample, a follow-up study about children's perceptions of elderly in about two to three years from now is recommended. Studies (Klausemier and Ripple, 1971) indicate that a child's attitudes develop early in life and 143 remain as stable enduring parts of the child. Therefore, a longitudinal study can shed some light as to the stability of children's per- ceptions about elderly persons and whether these perceptions are incorporated into attitudes found in later life. Studies should be devised to determine the importance of sex, age, and socioeconomic status on children's perceptions of elderly persons or persons in general. Studies should be devised to determine the impor- tance of visual and behavioral experiences on children's perceptions of elderly persons. Studies should be devised to determine what are the most important variables that affect blind children's perceptions of elderly persons. It is often assumed that preschool children are not capable of the "highest" type of "rational- altruistic thinking" (Goodman, 1970). The uni- versal assumption of age/stage linkages in developmental phases succeeding one another in order is widely accepted. However, this never explains the cross cultural differences found in children's differing moral consciousness in other countries and cultures. According to Cole 144 (1964) in many societies, the culture of early childhood includes the skills and knowledge necessary to meet social as well as work obli- gations and responsibilities. PrOper behavior in the presence of elders is often a prime obligation. In many societies adults are in charge and to them are owed both respect and obedience. These obligations are well under- stood and sharply etched among the patterns of childhood cultures. However, in this particular study, 50 percent of the respondents of the parent questionnaire said if children did not respect the elderly it was not the fault of the parents. Many theorists also support some of these perceptions by indicating that preschool chil- dren operate at a global cognitive level of classifi- lcation and, therefore, are not yet able to distinguish specifications to evaluate events, persons, or objects until they are developmentally ready. Is this in fact a culturally determined event and accepted fact or a universal occurrence, therefore a developmental theory? More cross cultural work is necessary. Implication for Practical Use The results from this study could be useful to parents and all other persons who are interested in children. It should provide teachers, school 145 administrators, and curriculum developers with further information on which to base their decision about whether or not to include elderly volunteers and spe- cific experiences as strategies for changing or influ— encing children's perceptions. For the child's inter- action with others are only a part of a world or social order perceived by the child and as Dubin and Dubin comment: ". . . a child's behavior and attitudes do not seem to be closely related to any particular aspect of the home or early environment; they seem, rather, to be determined by the nature of the child and his relation to the total psychological field in which he functions. From the point of view of this researcher the "field" is the total environment-~the ecosystem. The inherent biological make-up and the forces from the environment, together in complex interaction, affect the course of the developing individual but do not wholly determine it. APPENDICES APPENDIX A TEST INSTRUMENTS APPENDIX A TEST INSTRUMENTS MODIFIED VERSION OF THE CATE NAME AGE: YR. MO. SEX: MALE FEMALE TEACHER 146 1.6 1.8 147 TELL ME ABOUT OLD PEOPLE. DO YOU KNOW ANY OLD PEOPLE IN YOUR FAMILY? YES NO DO YOU KNOW ANY OLD PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT IN YOUR FAMILY? YES NO NAME AN OLD PERSON YOU KNOW WHO IS NOT IN YOUR FAMILY. DO YOU DO ANY THINGS WITH THE OLD PEOPLE YOU KNOW? YES NO IF THE CHILD SAID YES, ASK, "WHAT ARE SOME THINGS THAT YOU DO WITH OLDER PEOPLE?" TELL ME ANOTHER NAME FOR OLD PEOPLE. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT GETTING OLD YOURSELF? CHECK THE ANSWER. GOOD IT DOESN'T MATTER BAD 2. OLD PEOPLE ARE: 148 Very A Little Don't A Little Very Helpful Helpful Know Harmful Harmful Very A Little Don't A Little Very Sick Sick Know Healthy Healthy Very A Little Don't A Little Very Rich Rich Know Poor Poor Very A Little Don't A Little Very Dirty Dirty Know Clean Clean Very A Little Don't A Little Very Friendly Friendly Know Unfriendly Unfriendly Very A Little Don't A Little Very Ugly Ugly Know Pretty Pretty Very A Little Don't A Little Very Wonderful Wonderful Know Terrible Terrible Very A Little Don't A Little Very Wrong Wrong Know Right Right Very A Little Don't A Little Very Happy Happy Know Sad Sad Very A Little Don't A Little Very Bad Bad Know Good Good 2 . GRANDPARENTS ARE : 149 Very A Little Don't A Little Very Helpful Helpful Know Harmful Harmful Very A Little Don't A Little Very Sick Sick Know Healthy Healthy Very A Little Don't A Little Very Rich Rich Know Poor Poor Very A Little Don't A Little Very Dirty Dirty Know Clean Clean Very A Little Don't A Little Very Friendly Friendly Know Unfriendly Unfriendly Very A Little Don't A Little Very Ugly Ugly Know Pretty Pretty Very A Little Don't A Little Very Wonderful Wonderful Know Terrible Terrible Very A Little Don't A Little Very Wrong Wrong Know Right Right Very A Little Don't A Little Very Happy Happy Know Sad Sad Very A Little Don't A Little Very Bad Bad Know Good Good 150 Section I Directions: Cover of magazine is shown and placed on the table. Have the subject point to photograph. 3.1 WHICH OF THESE PERSONS WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE WITH? WHY? Young Elderly age-related altruistic evaluative 3.2 WHAT KINDS OF THINGS COULD YOU DO WITH THAT PERSON? with-active with-passive for Directions: Examiner points to oldest person of the same sex as child. 4. HOW WILL YOU FEEL WHEN YOU ARE AS OLD AS THIS MAN/WOMAN? Good Bad It doesn't matter WHY will you feel that way? 151 Directions: Examiner points to photographs of a man and woman. 4.1 WHAT THINGS WOULD YOU HELP THIS PERSON DO? (Point to man) affective behavioral stereotype behavior unique 4.2 WHAT THINGS WOULD YOU HELP THIS PERSON DO? (Point to woman) affective behavioral stereotype behavior unique 4.3 WHAT THINGS COULD HE HELP YOU DO? (Point to man) affective behavioral stereotype 4.4 WHAT THINGS COULD SHE HELP YOU DO? (Point to woman) affective behavioral stereotype II. III. PROJECT: PARENT QUESTIONNAIRE: CHILD'S NAME: AGE: Yrs. Mo. ADDRESS: PHONE NO.: (include area code) NAME OF PERSON FILLING IN THIS QUESTIONNAIRE: 152 "Children's Perception of the Elderly" Spring 1978 Your age at last birthday RELATIONSHIP TO CHILD: ETHNIC Mother Stepmother Female relative Nonrelative Male Female Father Stepfather Male relative GROUP OF PERSON: Black Oriental White Other Specify: yrs. IV. 153 What is the highest level of formal schooling that you have completed? CHECK ONE. Less than 8 grades of elementary school ) ) 8 grades of elementary school ) l-3 years of high school ) Completed high school and received a diploma or passed high school equivalency exam l—3 years of college, technical or business training College graduate, bachelor's degree Post bachelor's course work ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) Master's degree ( ) Post master's course work ( ) Ph.D., Ed.D. ( ) Other professional degree (such as MD, DO, JD, DDS): Please specify: Are you presently employed, unemployed, retired, or what? CHECK AS MANY AS APPLY TO YOU. Housewife or Househusband Student ( ) ( ) ( ) Permanently disabled ( ) Retired ( ) Unemployed (that is, previously employed for pay and/or presently looking for a job) ( ) Temporarily laid off/or on strike/or on sick leave ( ) Working now. If working do you work: full time (40 hours or more a week) or part time (less than 40 hours a week) What do you estimate will be your total family income before taxes in 1978? Please include income from all sources: wages, interests, stocks, welfare, property, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, child support from a previous marriage and any other money income. ESTIMATED TOTAL FAMILY YEARLY INCOME, 1978 ( ) Under 3,000 ( ) 7,000-8,999 ( ) 15,000-19,999 ( ) 3,000-4,999 ( ) 9,000-10,999 ( ) Over 20,000 ( ) 5,000-6,999 ( ) 11,000-14,999 VI. FAMILY STRUCTURE: 154 We would like to know something about the people who live in your household. In the chart below, please list for ALL PERSONS LIVING IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD NOW: and marital status. their age at last birthday, sex Do not list any persons more than once. DO NOT LIST PERSONS BY NAME. PLEASE use the following numbers to indicate marital status: (1) Never Married (2) Married (4) Separated (5) Divorced, Not Married (3) Widowed, Not Remarried (6) Don't Know w Age at Last Sex Marital Birthday (Circle M or F) Status SPOUSE (Husband or Wife) M F OTHER ADULTS IN THIS 1. M F HOUSEHOLD (19 years and older) 2. M F 3. M F 4. M F 5. M F 6. M F 7. M F CHILDREN LIVING IN THIS 1. M F HOUSEHOLD (Please list in order from oldest to 2. M F youngest) 3. M F 4. M F 5. M F 6. M F 7. M F 8. M F 9. M F 155 VII. CHILD'S GRANDPARENT(S): We would like to know about the child's grandparents. Please list for all living grandparents: their ages at last birthday, sex, marital status, health and time(s) spent with the child either by visits or telephone calls. DO NOT LIST GRANDPARENTS BY NAME. PLEASE use the following numbers to indicate marital status: (1) Never Married (4) Separated (2) Married (5) Divorced, Not Married (3) Widowed, Not Remarried l (6) Don't Know LIVING GRANDPARENTS: Age at Last Sex (Circle Marital Health (Circle Number of Birthday M or F) Status good - fair - poor) Time(s) Spent l. M F good fair poor 2. M good fair poor 3. M good fair poor 4. M good fair poor 5. M good fair poor 6. M good fair poor 7. M good fair poor 8. M good fair poor About how much time does your child usually see or talk to his/her Please use the following numbers to indicate the best grandparents? estimate of time spent with each grandparent using t :j/rating scale below. \lO‘U’luwaH About once each day 3-4 times a week About About once each week About once each month About 6 times each year About once a year Never VIII. 10. 156 "Now, I would like to ask your opinion about most elderly persons and grandparents. Please tell me how you feel about each one of these questions by saying yes or no:" Attitude Survey Toward Grandparents Do you think grandparents expect grandchildren to obey them? Do most grandparents like quiet grandchildren better than noisy grandchildren? Can grandparents who are very friendly control grandchildren? Do you think most grandparents are good examples for their grandchildren? Do most grandparents really want their grand- children to visit them? Are parents to blame when children do not respect their grandparents? Do you think most grandparents love their grandchildren? Do you think most grandchildren love their grandparents? Do grandparents encourage grandchildren to behave differently from the way they are told at home? Do you think most grandparents are too old- fashioned in their views about child care and rearing? NO UNSURE YES 10. 157 Attitude Survey Toward Elderly Persons Do you think elderly persons expect young preschool children to obey them? Do most elderly persons like quiet pre— school children better than noisy preschool children? Can elderly persons who are very friendly control preschool children? Do you think most elderly persons are good examples for preschoolers? Do most elderly really want preschoolers to visit them? Are parents to blame when children do not respect the elderly person? Do you think most elderly persons like preschool children? Do you think most preschool children like elderly persons? Do elderly persons encourage preschool children to behave differently from the way they are told at home? Do you think most elderly persons are too old-fashioned in their views about child care and rearing? NO UNSURE YES 158 X. ELDERLY-CHILD INTERACTION Sometimes preschoolers meet elderly persons outside the home. What elderly persons has your child met or been with over the past week? Some examples that sometimes fit the category are cooks, aides in the day care center, or a doctor. You may list the person by his occu- pation or title under the heading that applies. DO NOT LIST PERSONS BY NAME. Total Number of Persons in Each Category Total Number of Hours PERSONS . . Spent With Child Per Week Preschool/Day Care: Library: Church: Neighbor: Relatives (Other Than Grandparents): PERSONS 159 Total Number of Hours Spent with Child Per Week Total Number of Persons in Each Category Medical Personnel: Friend: People in Stores or Market Places: Other Members of the Community: 160 XI. HOW MUCH TIME does your child usually see an elderly person? Please indicate the time spent by circling the number after each age group which gives the best estimate using the rating scale below: 1 — About once each day 2 - About 3-4 times a week 3 - About once each week 4 - About once or twice each month 5 - About 6 times each year 6 - About once a year 7 - Never MALE(S): 55 - 65 years old 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 66 - 75 years old 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 76 years and older 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 FEMALE(S): 55 — 65 years old 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 66 - 75 years old 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 76 years and older 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 161 XII. PARENT-CHILD INTERACTION "Let us just imagine that is old enough to stay over— night at Grandparents' home for the first time. How do you think you would prepare him/her? What would you do or tell him/her?" (Probe: "What would you say to him/her about that first overnight stay with grandparents?") Specify: XIII. "Let us just imagine that is about to visit with an elderly neighbor for the afternoon while you run on an errand that will take about 2-3 hours. How do you think you would prepare him/ her? What would you do or tell him/her?" Specify: 162 XIV. MEDIA SOURCES There are many items in the home that contribute to learning. Media sources such as the radio, television, newspapers, magazines, books, records, and cassette tapes may have an influence in learning about elderly persons. Within the last month, your child may have watched a TV program in which an elderly person was characterized, or lis- tened to a story which portrayed an elderly person. Can you recall the character models portrayed as well as the title and content of that particular story, song, or program? If so, please specify below under the appropriate headings. NEWSPAPERS: MAGAZINES: RECORDS: CASSETTE TAPES: VIDEO VIEWERS: BOOKS: l. 2. 3. 4. 6. 163 TELEVISION: List the T.V. programs your child watches that have elderly persons. How often does he/she watch per week? 10. 164 XV. Place a check mark along the scale at a point which in your judg- ment best describes the social object indicated. impression is wanted. Old People Are: Your first Very A Little Don't A Little Very Active Active Know ___ Passive Passive ___ Very A Little Don't A Little Very Good Good Know ___ Bad Bad ___ Very A Little Don't A Little Very Sad Sad Know __. Happy Happy ‘__ Very A Little Don't A Little Very Cooperative__ Cooperative___ Know ___ Uncooperative___ Uncooperative__. Very A Little Don't A Little Very Right Right Know ___ Wrong Wrong '__ Very A Little Don't A Little Very Terrible Terrible Know ___ Wonderful Wonderful ___ Very A Little Don't A Little Very Busy Busy Know ___ Idle Idle ___ Very A Little Don't A Little Very Pretty Pretty Know __. Ugly Ugly .__ very A Little Don't A Little Very Unfriendly ___ Unfriendly Know ___ Friendly Friendly .__ very A Little Don't A Little Very Exciting Exciting Know ___ Dull Dull ___ Very A Little Don't A Little Very Clean Clean Know ___ Dirty Dirty ‘__ Very A Little Don't A Little Very Poor Poor Know Rich Rich 165 Old People Are: (continued) Very A Little Don't A Little Very Pleasant Pleasant ___ Know ___ Unpleasant Unpleasant Very A Little Don't A Little Very Healthy ___ Healthy ___ Know ___ Sick Sick Very A Little Don't A Little Very Harmful ___ Harmful ___ Know ___ Helpful Helpful Very A Little Don't A Little Very Independent___ Independent__- Know Dependent Dependent APPENDIX B INTRODUCTORY MATERIALS APPENDIX B INTRODUCTORY MATERIALS Dear Parents, Grandparents and old people are important members of our families and communities. The researcher is interested in some basic questions about children and their views of the elderly. Specifically, what are some of the factors that influence a child's perception of the elderly? Answers to questions such as: Does the amount of time spent with the elderly have an effect on their perception? What can they tell me about old people? How many old people do they know? What are some of the things they do for or with old people? The researcher will also appreciate all the voluntary help you can give by answering the parental questionnaire. The information gathered from you and your child will be kept confi- dential and anonymous. As soon as the data are collected from you and your child, the sheets will be coded with numbers and the first page will be removed from the child's as well as the parental questionnaire. The researcher will be willing to share with you the information of the study, if you are interested. If you have further questions about this project, please feel free to call; the home phone is 332-0002 or the office number is 353-3897. Thank you for your participation. Lillian Phenice 166 167 Michigan State University Department of Family Ecology CONSENT FORM Child's Name As the legal parent/guardian of the above named preschool child, I hereby give my permission for his/her participation in a study con- ducted by Lillian A. Phenice, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Family Ecology. Parent/Guardian's Name In addition, I have freely consented to take part in this study being conducted by Lillian A. Phenice. Under the supervision of: Dr. Eileen Earhart Academic Title: Chairperson, Department of Family and Child Sciences I understand that I am free to discontinue my participation and the child's participation in the study at any time. The study was explained to me and I understand the explanation that has been given and what my participation will involve. I understand that my participation in the study does not guarantee any beneficial results to me. I understand that at my request, I can receive additional explanation of the study, after my participation is completed. I understand that the results of the study will be treated in strict confidence and that I will remain anonymous. Within these restric- tions, results of the study will be made available to me at my request. Signed Date APPENDIX C CODE BOOK Card # Recorded 1 Card # Column 10 11-12 - Blank - 14 APPENDIX C CODE BOOK Variable Name CENTER FAMID CSEX CAGE RESPAGE RELAT RESPRACE RESPED EMPHOUSE 168 Description 1. Capitol Child C. Happy Day Care . Resurrection Day Care WM 1-44 1 = 11 Capitol 12 = 33 Happy 34 = 44 Resurrection l - Female 2 - Male Months 0-99 1. Mother 2. Stepmother 3. Female relative 4. Female nonrelative 5. Father 6. Stepfather 7. Male relative 8. Male nonrelative 1. Black 2. Oriental 3. White 4. Other 1-11 0 No 1 Yes 169 Card # Card # Variable D . t' Recorded Column Name escrip ion 1 15 EMPSTU O No 1 Yes 1 15 EMPDISA O No 1 Yes 1 l7 EMPRET 0 No 1 Yes 1 18 UNEMP O NO 1 Yes 1 l9 EMPTEMP O No 1 Yes 1 20 EMPFULL O No 1 Yes 1 21 EMPPART O No 1 Yes 1 22 INCOME 1-8 0 - No response 1 23 SPOUSE O No 1 Yes 1 24-25 SPOUSAGE 0-99 1 26 MARSTAT l-6 O - No response 1 27 OTHERAM Number (f) 0 = None 1 28 OTHERAF Number (f) O = None 1 29-30-31 OTHAMAGE Average to tenth l 32-33-.34 OTHAFAGE Average to tenth 1 35 CHILDM Number (f) l 36 CHILDF Number (f) l 37-38-.39 CHAGEM 0-99 Average to tenth l 40-4l-.42 CHAGEF 0—99 Average to tenth 170 Card # Card # Variable Recorded Column Name - Blank - 1 44-45 GRANDll l 46 GRANDlZ l 47 GRAND13 l 48 GRANDl4 l 49 GRAND15 1 50—55 GRAND21 - GRAND 25 1 56-61 GRAND3l - GRAND35 1 62—76 GRAND4l - GRAND 45 1 69—73 GRANDSl - GRANDSS 1 74-79 GRAND6l - GRAND65 l 80 CARD MARKER I 2 l CENTER 2 2-3 FAMID 2 4 CHSEX 2 5-6 CHAGE 2 7-16 PATGRAll to PATGRAlO Description Blanks none Age at last birthday 0-99 Sex of Grandp. 1F 2M Marital Status 1-6 Health Status 1-3 Number times spent 1-77 Blanks = Not applicable 0 = No answer Group A: 1. Capitol 2. Happy Day 3. Resurrection 1F 2M Months 0 No answer 1 No 2 Unsure 3 Yes Card # Recorded Card # Column 171 Variable Name 17 - Blank - 18-27 28-36 37-45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52-58 59-60 61-76 - Blank - 80 PATELl to PATELlO ELCHFl to ELCHF9 ELCHSl to ELCHS9 SEEMS SEEM6 SEEM7 SEEFS SEEF6 SEEF7 MEDIAl to MEDIA7 MEDIA8 PSEMANl to PSEMAN16 do not apply CARD MARKER 2 CENTER FAMID CHSEX CHAGE Description 9-10 (Same as above) Frequency 9 = more than 1 = less than one hour Rank 1-5 0 = No answer (Same as above) (Same as above) (Same as above) (Same as above) (Same as above) 0 = Don't know/or none Frequency 9 = No T.V. Hours spent Scale 1-5 1. Capitol 2. Happy 3. Resurrection 1-44 1 Female 2 Male Months Card # Card # Recorded Column 3 7 3 8 3 9 3 10 3 11 3 12 3 l3 3 l4 3 15 3 l6 3 l7 3 18 (1.6) 3 19 (1.6) 3 20 (1.6) 3 21 (1.7) 3 22 (1.8) 3 23-32 3 33 3 34-43 172 Variable Name CELAFP CELAFN CELPHYP CELPHYN CELPHYR CELBEP CELBEN CINFAM CNTFAM CNAMEL CDO CDOWACT CDWPAS CDWFOR ANOTHERN CFEELI CSEMOPl to CSEMOPlO Blank CSEMGRI to CSEMGRlO Description Frequency Count Frequency Count Frequency Count Frequency Count Frequency Count Frequency Count 0 — No l = Yes 0 = No l = Yes 0 - No l = Yes 0 = No 1 = Yes Frequency Count Frequency Count Frequency Count 0 No l = Yes 1 Positive 2 Neutral 3 Negative Semantic difference 1-5 Semantic difference 1-5 Card # Recorded Card # Column 44 45 46 47 48 51 (3.1) (3.1) (3.2) (3.2) (3.2) 49 50 (4.1) 52 53 54 55 56 Blank 58 (4.3) 59 173 Variable Name CLIKESEX CLIKEEL CDOWITTA CDWITHP CDFOR CFEELZ CFEELWHY CHELPMA CHELPMB CHELMU CHELPFA CHELPFB CHELPFU Blank MHELPCA MHELPCB Description 0 = Did not like any 1 Female 2 Male Age related Altruistic Evaluation Don't like = Don't know Cub-WNW = No frequency count — Negative responses KO 0 l (Same as above) (Same as above) 1 Positive 2 Neutral 3 Negative 1. 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