Cross-generational dialogue through life stories

Abstract

Young people nowadays have little opportunities to interact meaningfully with older people leading to possible ageism. Older people also find it difficult to understand the youth. This paper examines the impacts of the ‘Life Mentor Scheme’, an intergenerational learning activity between university students and the elders, on their attitude toward each other. Undergraduates were matched with elders on a 2: 1 basis. The elderly shared their life experiences, and the undergraduates constructed life stories of their elderly mentors in a book form. Methods: A total of 140 undergraduates across different major studies from four universities in Hong Kong and 60 elders aged 60 or above participated in the Scheme from 2014 to 2015. The impacts of the Scheme were measured by a survey using A-B design, self-administered for student participants and interview-based for elders. Respondents’ attitude towards the other generation was assessed with the use of validated tools. Results: For student participants, pair sample t test of the Kogan’s Attitude Towards Older People Scale showed significant increase in positive attitude and decrease in negative attitudes toward the older generation after joining the Scheme. Similarly, pair sample t test of Aging Semantic Differential Scale also showed significantly more positive attitude toward the elderly. However, no significant findings were found among the elderly participants. At the same time, positive qualitative comments on the Scheme were given by both samples.Discussion: Similar intergenerational activities are recommended to strengthen empathetic understanding between the young and the old.