Información y exposición indirecta para reducir estereotipos hacia el envejecimiento

Purpose: The Image that society has about older people has been built on a base of stereotypes, far away from reality. This social image will have a determinant influence on attitudes and behaviors from all those people related with them, including health care professionals. It should be mandatory to eradicate negative stereotypes against aging during university formation, and in this practice get sensitive professionals who will attend people in their final state of life. Method: the treatment “Information plus indirect experience” was set throw the viewing of the short film “Como un Rolling” (Castilla, 2013). This film exposes the concept of active aging, and had the purpose to become the way of changing stereotype toward aging and older people in university students. Using a non-probabilistic sampling 187 students were selected (age: M=21.88, SD=4.15) from Spain (N= 112) and Costa Rica (N=75). The “Diferencial Semantico del Envejecimiento” (Villar, 1997) and the CENVE scale (Blanca, Sanchez, Trianes, 2005) were applied before and after watching the film. t test for related samples and correlation analysis on the variables studied were run. Furthermore, the concept of active aging was qualitatively analyzed before and after viewing the documentary. Results: Higher values were identified at the level of negative stereotypes before viewing the documentary, significant differences between pre and post measures of scales were found, identifying a decrease of negative stereotypes after exposure and more positive views of aging. No significant differences between countries were found. Conclusions: It is possible to sensitize young people and get changes in stereotypes from a combined program that mixed information and experience.