At-O-A - Aging Attitude Scale

Validation of the Attitude-Older Adult and Aging-Visual Analogue Scales (At-O-A)

By Mary Ligon, Katie Ehlman, Gabriele Moriello, Colleen Russo and Kamila Miller

Gerontological educators often seek to address and challenge students’ attitudes toward older adults and the aging process using classroom activities. Simple and practical measures of attitude are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of such activities.

The Attitude Toward Older Adult and Aging-Visual Analogue Scale (At-O-A), consists of two visual analog scales (VASs), the Attitude Toward Older Adults VAS (At-Older Adults-VAS) and the Attitude Toward Aging VAS (At-Aging VAS), which were originally developed to measure potential changes in attitudes toward older adults and the aging process.

The At-O-A is validated through the following methods:

• Content validity: A panel of six content experts and 30 undergraduate students were consulted for feedback.
  
  
• Test-retest reliability: Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated a sample of 190 undergraduate students from York College of Pennsylvania and University of Southern Indiana completed the At-O-A at two points in time.

At-Older Adults-VAS: ICC=0.87, 95% CI [.821, .898]

At Aging-VAS: ICC=0.84, 95% CI [.780, .874]

• Concurrent validity: Pearson’s correlation tests determined the relationship between the Attitude Toward Older Adults VAS with the Fraboni Scale of Ageism (FSA) and the Attitude Toward Aging VAS with the Anxiety about Aging Scale (AAS).

Attitude Toward Older Adults-VAS and the FSA:
*r = -0.50 at time one and  r = -0.64 at time two

Attitude Toward Aging-VAS and the AAS:
*r = 0.38 at time one and r = 0.43 for time two.

For details on the At-O-A tool validation process, please refer to article published in Educational Gerontology (2014):

Mary Ligon, Katie Ehlman, Gabriele Moriello, Colleen Russo & Kamila Miller (2013): Validation of the Attitude-Older Adult and Aging-Visual Analogue Scales (At-O-A), Educational Gerontology, DOI: 10.1080/03601277.2013.858467