PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to identify the perception about the elderly among undergraduate students interested in the elderly care business.
METHOD
In this descriptive research, a total of 183 undergraduate students were participated. The instrument was consisted of a 18-item semantic differential scale developed by Sanders et al (1984). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe test, Pearson's correlation coefficients by SPSS 18.0.
RESULT
Undergraduate students' perception about the elderly was slightly positive(2.98+/-1.51). The significant factors associated with the perception about the elderly were gender, age, present residing state with the elderly, experience of residing with the elderly at the past. Male students' perception about the elderly was more positive than female. Among 18 items, 'wise' and 'knowledgeable' was highly related to the perception about the elderly(r=.671, p=.001).
CONCLUSION
These findings indicate that the items of optimistic, attractive, flexible and good were the impressive perceptions about the elderly for the undergraduate students. The result of this study can be utilized to promote perception about the elderly among undergraduate students.