Positive Education Through Social Media to Reduce Negative Stereotypes Towards Old Age

Introduction and Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of positive psychoeducation regarding aging, disseminated through social media channels, in mitigating negative stereotypes. Additionally, we aim to explore any potential associations between various sociodemographic variables and the prevalence of negative stereotypes towards the elderly.

Methods: This quasi-experimental study involved an experimental group comprising subjects who underwent a 7-day intervention. The study aimed to evaluate any alterations in negative stereotypes towards aging both before and after the intervention. The intervention consisted of daily publication of positive messages about aging on a social media account. Two questionnaires were used: one collecting sociodemographic variables and the Questionnaire for Evaluating Negative Stereotypes towards Aging. Snowball sampling through social media was employed, with 109 subjects completing the study.

This was a quasi-experimental prospective study that used snowball sampling to recruit participants. The study was publicized through Instagram accounts of two authors with a combined following of over 100,000. Of the initial 250 participants, 109 completed the study. Inclusion criteria included:

1. Being over 18 years old.
2. Participating in both the PRE and POST questionnaires of the Negative Stereotypes towards Old Age Questionnaire (CENVE).
3. Following the Instagram posts related to the intervention for 3 days or more.

Instruments:

The evaluation instruments for this study included two online Google Forms questionnaires (See in Supplementary Material) designed for pre- and post-assessment. The pre-assessment questionnaire consisted of two sections: 16 items on sociodemographic data and 15 items from the Negative Stereotypes towards Old Age Questionnaire (CENVE) (Blanca et al., 2005). This instrument assesses individuals' stereotypes towards the older population using a Likert-type response scale ranging from 1 to 4 (1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Somewhat Disagree, 3 = Somewhat Agree, 4 = Strongly Agree). It provides a total score and three dimensions: Health Dimension, Social Motivation Dimension, and Character/Personality Dimension. The maximum score on this questionnaire is 60 points (indicating a high presence of negative stereotypes towards old age), and the minimum score is 15 points (indicating a low presence of such stereotypes).

Procedure:

Both at the initial and final questionnaire stages, that is, before and after the 7-day intervention period of reading the posts, was administered the questionnaire CENVE. Additionally, the post-intervention evaluation included a new question that gathered data on the frequency with which the participant had followed the intervention (0-2, 3-4, and 5-7 days).

Intervention The intervention consisted of daily positive messages about aging posted on an Instagram account (@laetapaplateada), created specifically for this study, and was conducted over the course of a week. Examples included "The ability to make decisions improves with age" and "Emotional regulation improves with age" (David, 2017). These posts were accompanied by their respective author references.

Statistical Analysis:

A paired samples t-test was conducted to compare each subject's total score on the CENVE scale before and after the intervention. To determine if certain sociodemographic variables were associated with the presence of negative stereotypes towards old age, the scores obtained in the PRE questionnaire for each study group were analyzed using descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing. This analysis was performed using Student's t-test (for variables with 2 categories) or ANOVA (for variables with more than 2 categories). The analysis of the "sex" variable was omitted due to low male participation.

Furthermore, to examine if various demographic variables were associated with pre-post differences in the presentation of negative stereotypes towards older people, a Repeated Measures ANOVA was performed for each of the sociodemographic variables collected in the questionnaires: sex, age, marital status, place of residence, cohabitants, religion, education level, occupation, frequency of contact with older people, area of contact with older people, cohabitation with older people, relationship with grandparents, significance level of that relationship, knowledge of any of their grandparents' loss of abilities (physical/mental), frequency of viewing intervention posts on Instagram, etc.

All tests were analyzed using the statistical software Jamovi 2.3.21. Data for the assessment of negative stereotypes towards old age were collected in February and March 2023.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

1. Being over 18 years old.
2. Participating in both the PRE and POST questionnaires of the Negative Stereotypes towards Old Age Questionnaire (CENVE).
3. Following the Instagram posts related to the intervention for 3 days or more.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Being under 18 years old.
2. Participating in only one questionnaire
3. Following the Instagram posts related to the intervention for less than 3 days.