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Despite growing demand, few mental healthcare professionals specialize in clinical work with older adults. A better understanding of factors related to geropsychology interest may increase the pipeline of future geropsychologists. Graduate-level trainees (N=460; 67.4% doctoral; age=21-64) completed the Fraboni Scale of Ageism, Contact with Older Adults Scale, six indicators of interest in work with older adults, and an imagined “typical” older adult’s ability to complete activities of daily living (ADLs). 60% imagined full ADL independence. Between 14.1%-25.7% expressed strong interest in education/training related to treating older adults and having some older adult clients; only 6.7% planned to specialize in clinical work with older adults. In regression analyses (R-squared=16%-32%), more ageist attitudes, less contact, and being a master’s trainee were related to less interest. ADL status was significant only for interest in specialization; imagining more ADL-dependence related to higher interest in specializing in older adults. ADL status significantly moderated the relation of contact to interest in learning about issues related to older adults; ADL-based differences in interest were non-significant at low and average contact, but at high contact, interest in learning about older adults was significantly higher when the older adult was imagined as ADL-dependent rather than ADL-independent. Findings may indicate benevolent ageism partially motivates trainees’ interest in learning about/working with older adults whom they imagine need more help with basic tasks of daily living. Increasing contact, reducing ageist attitudes, and providing more clinical opportunities with older adults may facilitate trainees’ readiness and interest in future clinical work with older adults.

Subjective aging is important due to its relationship with well-being. Diehl and Wahl (2010) proposed Awareness of Age-Related Change (AARC) as a measure of subjective aging; their theoretical model proposed that cognition’s relationship to AARC is mediated by ageist experiences. The current study tests this model and proposes an alternative model where cognition is hypothesized to mediate the relationship of ageist experiences to AARC. Inductive reasoning was used to measure cognition due to its susceptibility to ageism. Participants were 283 older adults aged 66-90 years (M=69.08, SD=3.36) without a dementia diagnosis or cognitive impairment. Inductive reasoning was measured by Word Series, Number Series, Letter Sets, and a composite score. AARC total losses, cognitive losses, total gains, and cognitive gains were used. Age, gender, and education covariates were included. Analysis of Diehl and Wahl’s (2010) model showed that the composite and individual reasoning measures had negative direct effects on all AARC measures. Ageism mediated the effect of the composite and individual reasoning measures on AARC total and cognitive losses. In the alternative model, ageist experiences had positive direct effects on AARC total and cognitive losses. The composite, Number Series, and Letter Sets mediated the effect of ageism on all AARC measures. Word Series mediated the effect of ageism on total and cognitive losses. Overall, inductive reasoning seems to play an important role in understanding the relationship of ageism with AARC. Thus, inductive reasoning abilities may be a potential intervention point to cultivate well-being. Future research should assess additional domains of cognition.

By 2035, 25% of the growing older adult population may be in need of mental health services (Novotney, 2018; Vespa, 2018). However, only a small proportion of psychologists currently identify as geropsychologists; thus, the number of geropsychologists will be insufficient to meet these future demands. Identifying variables that explain the variability in current psychology trainees’ expressed interest to engage in future clinical work with older adults is important so that training efforts can be targeted and the number of geropsychologists increased. Based on a multicultural framework and intergroup contact theory, this study examined contact with older adults, empathy, and multicultural competence as predictors of counseling and clinical psychology doctoral trainees’ attitudes toward and interest in working with older adult clients. A sample of 311 doctoral trainees (234 clinical PhD/PsyD, 78 counseling PhD/PsyD) were surveyed online. Structural equation modeling tested the hypothesized interrelationships between study variables. The model showed good fit to the data (χ2(82) = 179.803, p

The health and gender of older adults can elicit differing attitudes and emotions within young and middle-aged adults (Bergman & Bodner, 2015); one’s own gender may also influence these differences (Bergman & Cohen-Fridel, 2012). In this study, 287 participants (173 males, 114 females), aged 19-55 years (M=32.8), were randomly assigned to read one description of an older adult that varied cognitive health status (healthy/Alzheimer’s) and gender (male/female). Factorial MANOVAs examined differences by gender, health, and participant gender for participants’ (a) emotions about the older adult (compassion and emotional distance) and (b) negative perceptions about aging (ageist attitudes and aging anxiety). The first MANOVA found a significant main effect for health status; participants expressed more compassion (p=.013) and less emotional distance (p