Healthy, Happy, and Old: Children Learn About the Elderly

This study explored the effectiveness of a curriculum in fostering children's positive attitudes toward the elderly and their own aging. The curriculum was developed around three major goals: (1) increasing children's knowledge of the elderly; (2) enabling children to assess their own aging positively; and (3) decreasing negative stereotyping of the physical and behavioral characteristics of the elderly. A total of 108 children in kindergarten through the sixth grade received the curriculum; 107 children in the same grades served as the control and did not participate in the curriculum. The test. Children's Attitudes Toward the Elderly (CATE) (Jantz, Seefeldt, Galper, in knowledge of older persons, F (1,209) = 5.41, p < .01; and in changing stereotyped thinking about the elderly. The curriculum, however, did not significantly change children's negative attitudes toward their own aging.