Judging a book by its older adult cover: age-related expectations and parental preference for children’s books

ABSTRACT: As they typically have limited direct contact, children’s attitudes towards older adults have more opportunity to be shaped by other social influences such as their parents and children’s literature. Children’s books have been noted for their tendency to portray older adults in stereotypical ways and their tendencies to underrepresent older adults. We investigated how the portrayal of older adults as major versus supporting characters, as well as parents’ age-related expectations were related to parental preference for children’s books. We designed 24 children’s book covers that depicted an older adult as a main character, a younger adult as a main character, or only children. One-hundred-seventy-five parents of children ages 0–12 rated their preference for the covers, their age-related ex

SUBMITTER: Bellingtier J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9923672 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature