The perspective of different age groups regarding old age and aging in highly aged contexts.

The increase in longevity and population aging are the greatest conquest and social challenge that we face in this century, especially in the most developed countries. Spain is, currently, one of the oldest countries in the European Union and it is expected that in 2050 it will be the oldest country in the world, second only to Japan, with the region of Galicia (located in the northwest of this country) being one of the most highly aged contexts, with a rate of people over 65 years old well over 24%. In the light of this demographic transition, which some see as a threat to the general wellbeing of society, it becomes particularly urgent to study the social representations of aging. Thus, the main goal of this paper is to assess the attributions, attitudes and knowledge around aging that circulate in highly aged contexts. With this purpose in mind, 445 adults were selected, stratified by age (young people, middle-aged people and older adults) and provided with a selection of tools to assess their knowledge, stereotypes and attributions regarding aging and old age. The results indicate that attitudes towards aging itself are negative, becoming more negative as we age. In a similar way when analyzing attitudinal biases towards aging, a mostly negative tendency is observed. Besides, the level of knowledge about aging is very low in all participants, especially in younger groups. The findings imply that these result could be used to design, implementation and evaluation of anti-ageist programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]