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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Predictors of interest in working with older adults
— a survey of postgraduate trainee psychologists | | Author(s) | Deborah-Anne Koder, Edward Helmes |
| Journal title | Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, vol 29, no 2, 2008 |
| Pages | pp 158-171 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Students ; Clinical psychologists ; Attitudes to the old of general public ; Cross sectional surveys ; Australia. |
| Annotation | Despite the growing number of older adults that imply an increasing need for psychological services, few psychologists choose to specialise in working with older clients. This cross-sectional research examined predictors of student interest in working with older clients, in an effort to understand factors that may influence future psychologists to work in this area. The targeted sample consisted of Australian postgraduate psychology students whose course coordinators responded to a request to participate in this national survey. 431 postgraduate trainee psychology students (45.3% response rate) completed the survey that examined training, contact, and attitudinal variables. Having undergone or intending to do a placement within an aged care setting was the most powerful predictor of interest, with confidence in working with older adults, and positively anticipating old age being attitudinal factors related to increased interest. Amount or quality of contact with older adults and formal education through ageing-related coursework failed to predict interest, based on hierarchical regression analysis. Implications for future training of psychologists highlight the importance of quality clinical experiences with older clients during training as opposed to pure coursework. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-081027203 A |
| Classmark | XN: QT9A: TOB: 3KB: 7YA |
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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