Abstract:
The growing percentage of the elderly in the population has raised questions about societies' ability to meet their needs and about the economic and social consequences of supporting them. In Nigeria at present, the population of the elderly (60 +) according to the 1991 census is 4% of the population. There is also little or no government support for the elderly as a group rather the care of the elderly in Nigeria is within the domain of the family. It follows therefore that family members need to be socialised into such roles so that they will automatically assume the role of caregivers at the right time. This study explored how knowledgeable the Nigerian youth are about aging issues considering that they are going to have the responsibility of taking care of the elderly in future either as family members or as policy makers. In addition the study also examined some aging stereotypes held by the Nigerian youth in order to ascertain, among other things, the way they feel about the elderly generally. The study employed the questionnaire and focus group discussions in data collection from a randomly selected sample of youths (15-30 years) in Anambra State. It covered three rural and one urban local government areas. The sample size was eight hundred (800) youths. Information that was sought from the respondents included personal characteristics, knowledge of government policy on the aged, knowledge of aging issues, age stereotypes, perception of the aged, family relationships, social support, etc. Six hypotheses were proposed and tested. The study found that the Nigerian youth do not have adequate knowledge of issues that concern the aging and that there is a very negative perception of the elderly among the youth. Findings show that a strong relationship exists between contact with the elderly and having a positive perception about them. It was also found that the youth are opposed to institutionaliskion of the elderly. Majority btlieved that the place of the elderly is with their families. It was found that gender and place of residence, had no relationship with any of the dependent variables like "willingness to live in the same house with parents", "view about leaving wife and children in the village", "view on whether an individual can outlive his usefulness", and "feelings about the belief that elderly people are more likely to be witches and wizards" The study found some relationship between level of education and some of the dep'endent variables mentioned above. Six hypotheses were tested and the following relationships were found to be significant: relationships between contact with the elderly and knowledge of aging issues, relationship between contact with the elderly and perception of the aging, education and perception of the elderly and relationship between age and perception of the elderly. No significant difference was found between gender and perception of the aging and between knowledge of aging issues and perception of the elderly. These findings have clear implications for policy and social work practice in Nigeria. A fundamental one is the need for the introduction of gerontological education and intergenerational programmes into the Nigerian school curriculum, which we hope would help influence, the attitudes of young people about aging.
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