Valued elders or societal burden: Cross-national attitudes toward older adults

Abstract

Population aging is a nearly universal trend that is placing new importance on how societies view and treat their elderly. Past research has established that perceptions of the elderly vary across countries. This article empirically explores three competing theoretical explanations on potential reasons for these differences: the Value Orientation perspective, the Competition over Resources perspective, and Political and Economic Structure. Using Wave 6 of the World Values Survey, various sources of country-level data, and hierarchical logistic regressions the article provides insights as to which theoretical position holds the most weight. The analysis improves on past research by using a large and diverse sample of countries from every region of the world. Contrary to popular thought, and the traditional Value Orientation perspective, it is found that Asian, Middle Eastern, and Sub-Saharan African countries have significantly more negative views toward the elderly than Western countries. In addition, the study finds that countries with higher average lifespans and more elderly as a proportion of the total population actually have more favorable attitudes toward the elderly.