Ageism among undergraduate students: Do grandparents make a difference?

In an era of greying population, the idea of discriminating against people based on their chronological age is nothing less than absurd. The psychological insecurity sprouting from the anxiety about ageing paired with multiple factors often paves the way to ageism. The current research aims at investigating if the experience of living with grandparents has any significant influence on reducing ageism among undergraduate students. A self-reported questionnaire was employed among 194 students in the age group 17-22 from three colleges of Kasaragod district, Kerala to collect demographic data and The Fraboni Scale of Ageism was employed to measure ageism among the respondents and the mean score of those who were living with/had lived with their grandparents was compared with those who had never lived with their grandparents. The results of the study show that those respondents who live with their grandparents or have lived with their grandparents in the past had significantly lower ageism scores than those who had never resided with their grandparents. Further, the study could find that the awareness programmes on ageing and old age are not adequately available to young people and the awareness programmes that are provided are not efficient enough to eliminate ageism, as the data suggests. The study points to the importance of-inter-generational living in eliminating ageist notions and the-need for effective awareness programmes.