Geriatric competency and attitudes toward older adults among Turkish undergraduate social work students
GERONTOLOGY & GERIATRICS EDUCATION, cilt.45, sa.1, ss.52-66, 2024 (ESCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 45 Sayı: 1
- Basım Tarihi: 2024
- Doi Numarası: 10.1080/02701960.2022.2143356
- Dergi Adı: GERONTOLOGY & GERIATRICS EDUCATION
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Abstracts in Social Gerontology, AgeLine, CINAHL, EBSCO Education Source, Educational research abstracts (ERA), EMBASE, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Psycinfo, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.52-66
- Atatürk Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
The need for social workers educated about aging and eager to work
with older adults will increase significantly as the older adult population rises rapidly. It is essential to determine the attitudes and competencies of social workers prepared to work in this field. This study
aimed to evaluate Turkish undergraduate social work students’ attitudes toward older adults and their geriatric social work competency.
A cross-sectional descriptive correlational research design was used in
the study. The study included 308 fourth-year undergraduate students
attending a social work program. Participants were selected by convenience sampling. The results indicated that students had slightly
positive attitudes toward older people. As for the geriatric competency, the students rated highest in applying “values, ethics, and
theoretical perspectives” and lowest in the “aging services, programs,
and policies.” Geriatric social work competence was strongly associated with positive attitudes toward older adults. These findings
indicate the need to implement new learning opportunities early in
academic programs to improve social work students’ attitudes toward
older adults and increase their knowledge and skills to address the
aging population’s needs.