The Relationship Between Perceptions of Aging With Attitudes of Airlangga University Students Towards Elderly

Abstract

Backgrounds: Elderly is the final stage of the human life cycle. Perception shapes how individuals understand their surroundings and the various choices they make. Wrong perceptions of individuals will affect individual attitudes towards the elderly. The attitude of the younger generation is closely related to the elderly, because some of them will eventually provide care for the growing elderly population. This study aims to analyze the relationship between perceptions of aging and students' attitudes towards the elderly. Objectives: This study aims to analyze the relationship between perceptions of aging and the attitude of Airlangga University students towards the elderly. Methods: This study is an observational analytic study with a cross-sectional design. The sample consists of 85 students in 2022. The research was conducted at Airlangga University using primary data from the Kogan's Attitude toward elderly questionnaire and a questionnaire created by researchers via the Google form. Correlation analysis is used to answer the research hypothesis. Results: This study shows that the majority of respondents are female (71.8%) with an age range of 20-21 years (56.5%), are at the economic level at the economic level of IDR 750,000X > IDR 1,000,000 (77.6%), come from the faculties of medicine (50.6%), have lived with the elderly (71.8%) and are currently not living with the elderly (72.9%). The majority of respondents have positive perceptions and attitudes with an average perception value of 43.7 and an average attitude value of 102.1. The results of Spearman's correlation test analysis show that the coefficient value between perceptions of aging and student attitudes is 0.528 which includes a strong positive correlation. The results of the p value show a value of 0.000 (p <0.05), which means that there is a relationship between perceptions of aging and students' attitudes towards the elderly. Conclusion: There is a relationship between perceptions of aging and student attitudes toward the elderly.