A trend study of Taiwanese university students’ attitudes toward older adults

This study aimed to examine whether university students’ attitudes differed toward older adults before and after a course intervention, and to explore longitudinal trends in these attitudes over time. The study implemented a Life Story-based course focusing on older adults and used pretests and posttests to measure students’ attitudes. Data were collected continuously from 206 university students between 2019 to 2025. A sequential study design was adopted and repeated-measures ANOVA was used for statistical analysis. The results showed a significant main effect of Time, F(1, 158) = 79.240, p < .001, with a large effect size (partial η2 = .334), indicating that students’ posttest attitudes toward older adults were significantly higher than their pretest scores. This finding suggests the statistical and practical significance of the intervention. The Year × Time interaction was also significant, F(5, 158) = 3.924, p = .002, partial η2 = .110, indicating that the magnitude of attitude change varied across cohorts. However, the main effect of Year was not significant, F(5, 158) = 0.584, p = .713, partial η2 = .018. Overall, the results suggest that the Life Story course effectively improved students’ attitudes toward older adults, with varying effects across cohorts. These findings highlight the importance of integrating gerontological education into general education curricula, promoting age-integrated or ageless educational perspectives, and supporting intergenerational learning opportunities through shared coursework involving older adults and university students.