Using the working with older adults scale with Spanish undergraduate students

Abstract

The growing population of older adults worldwide has raised concerns about the recruitment and retention of the workforce in age-related care. Based on this concern, the present work studies the intention to work with older adults in a Spanish sample of undergraduate students. An online questionnaire was administered to undergraduate students from different disciplines. A language adapted version of the Working with Older Adults Scale (WOAS) and the Big-Five Inventory 10-Item version were applied. Basic psychometrics were computed, together with EFA, CFA and multivariate statistics in order to know more about the relevance and relationships between the four WOAS subscales and their association with BFI personality domains. Moderate to strong relationships were found between WOAS subscales, in addition to significant correlations between the perceived behavioral control subscale and some personality traits. Nevertheless, only subjective norm and attitudes subscales contributed significantly to the intention to work with older adults. The current results replicate in Spanish students the previous findings about the role of perceived social approval on the intention to work with older adults. More research is needed on the role of intrapersonal factors