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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Age differences in attitudes toward computers | | Author(s) | Sara J Czaja, Joseph Sharit |
| Journal title | The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 53B, no 5, September 1998 |
| Pages | pp P329-P340 |
| Keywords | Information technology ; Computers ; Attitude ; Age groups [elderly] ; Children [offspring] ; Middle aged ; Young adults [20-25] ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | It is commonly believed that older people hold more negative attitudes towards computer technology than younger age groups. This study examined age differences in attitudes toward computers as a function of experience with computers and computer task characteristics. A sample of 384 community-dwelling Americans aged 20 to 75 performed one of three real-world computer tasks (data entry, database enquiry, accounts balancing) for a 3-day period. A multidimensional computer attitude scale was used to assess attitudes towards computers pre- and post-task. Although there were no age differences in overall attitudes, there were age effects for the dimensions of comfort, efficiency, dehumanisation, and control. In general, older people perceived less comfort, efficacy and control over computers than did the other participants. The results also indicated that experience with computers resulted in more positive attitudes for all participants across most attitude dimensions. These effects were moderated by task and gender. Overall, the findings indicate that computer attitudes are modifiable for people of all age groups. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-010117208 A |
| Classmark | UVB: 3O: DP: BB: SS: SE: SD6: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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