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Adultism is an underappreciated influence on young adults’ career choices and a hidden contributing factor to the geropsychology workforce shortage. This study reports on the development of an Adultist Concerns scale and its correlations with several factors relevant to careers in aging. Clinical psychology doctoral students (n = 109) completed the new scale along with measures of ageism, training interests, and experience working with older adults. The Adultist Concerns scale had strong internal consistency (α = .952) and factor loadings .853 and .929. Females scored significantly higher than males (p = .003). There were significant positive correlations between Adultist Concerns and both overall ageist behaviors (p = .002) and negative ageist behaviors specifically (p = .002). Adultist concerns were significantly negatively correlated with age (p = .000), interest in working with older adults (p = .003), and experience with this population (p = .043).

Active engagement in health policy by psychologists is vital to the well-being of the aging population; however, few feel prepared to engage in policy making or know how to get involved. A novel policy curriculum was developed and integrated into an undergraduate psychology course. N = 34 students completed assessments of policy knowledge and assignments designed to increase their skills, knowledge, and critical thinking about health policy. Students reported strong beliefs that psychological research can impact health policies and a desire to understand how to use research to inform policy; however, they reported less understanding of how policy is made. Preliminary evidence suggests students are interested in applying psychological research to policy processes; however, they do not know how to get involved. Policy education was easily integrated into the course, and further study is needed to determine students’ future engagement in health policy and change health policy skills.