By Okoye, Uzoma Odera
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
institutionalisation of the elderly. Majority believed 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”,
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“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 dependent 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.