UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS OLDER WOMEN: A SCALE DEVELOPMENT STUDY

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Abstract
Introduction: The world population is rapidly aging due to decreased fertility rates, increased longevity, and the development of preventive and curative health services. In general, women live longer than men and, therefore, are exposed to negative attitudes more frequently. No measurement tool currently exists that can reliably and validly assess people’s attitudes towards older women in Türkiye. Therefore, the Attitude Towards Older Women Scale is expected to significantly meet this need. Materials and Method: The study participants consisted of 512 students from a university in the Central Anatolia Region who were continuing their education and agreed to participate in the study voluntarily. Validity and reliability analyses were conducted, and the ‘Attitude Towards Older Women Scale,’ designed as a five-point Likert-type scale, was subjected to both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Results: The 23-item “Attitude Towards Older Women Scale” consists of 9 items for positive attitudes and 14 items for negative attitudes. The total score that can be obtained from the scale varies between 23 and 115. The total score is obtained by summing the scores from the two factors in the scale. A high score indicates high positive attitudes towards older women, while a low score indicates low positive attitudes towards older women. Conclusion: According to the analysis results, the reliability and validity of the “Attitude Towards Older Women Scale” are at an acceptable level, indicating that the scale can be used to determine the attitudes of university students towards older women in Türkiye. Key Words: Aged; Attitude; Women; Students.

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