The Gerontologist, Vol 40, Issue 1 75-85, Copyright © 2000 by The Gerontological Society of America

ARTICLES

Young and middle-aged adults' perceptions of elder abuse

HW Childs, B Hayslip Jr, LM Radika and JA Reinberg
Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton 76203, USA. [email protected]

Middle-aged and young adults (ns = 201 and 422, respectively) completed an adaptation of the Severity of Violence Against Women Scale and the Elder Abuse Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions Scale--Revised to examine the impact of (a) respondent age, (b) age and gender of perpetrator and victim, and (c) history of experienced violence on perceptions of elder abuse. Results suggested that middle-aged respondents viewed psychological behaviors more harshly than did younger respondents and that both middle-aged women and young men were less tolerant of middle-aged perpetrators. Although history of participatory violence toward older persons was predictive of perceptions of elder abuse as it interacted with respondent age, history of experienced abuse was not predictive. These data support a view of elder abuse that emphasizes its relativistic nature, wherein perceptions of elder abuse depend on both the characteristics of the perceiver and the victim and perpetrator variables.

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