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

August 23, 2024 updated by: Elena de la Fuente, Universidad de Zaragoza

Positive Education Through Social Media to Reduce Negative Stereotypes Towards Old Age: a Quasi-experimental Study

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.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

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.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

109

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Spain
    • Zarazgoza
      • Zaragoza, Zarazgoza, Spain, 50009
        • Universidad de Zaragoza

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

109 participants over 18 years old.

Description

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.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Reduce negative stereotypes towards older people by viewing positive messages on social networks and subsequent analysis using the CENVE questionnaire
Time Frame: 7 days
We use for this study two Google Forms questionnaires designed for pre- and post-assessment. There are two sections: sociodemographic data Negative Stereotypes towards Old Age Questionnaire (CENVE). The post-intervention evaluation included a new questionon the frequency with which the participant had followed the intervention. The intervention consisted of daily positive messages about aging posted on an Instagram account. The primary objective of this study was to analyze whether positive education about aging disseminated through social media could reduce negative stereotypes towards older adults. We collected data on the participants' engagement with the intervention and measure if the participants had lower scores on CENVE than before the intervention.
7 days

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Universidad de Zaragoza

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

October 22, 2022

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 15, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

May 15, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 21, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 23, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

August 27, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 27, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 23, 2024

Last Verified

August 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • U1111-1311-9233

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

IPD Plan Description

The data used to support the findings of the present study are available from the corresponding autor upon request.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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