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Title: Texas Tech University


1
  • Aging Population Career Opportunities for Human
    Services and Health Sciences
  • Presented by
  • Shun-Tzu Lin, MS shun-tzu.lin_at_ttu.edu
  • Karen L. Alexander, PhD karen.alexander_at_ttu.edu
  • Texas Tech University

2
Session Overview
  • Highlight Career Opportunities
  • Provide Rationale for Shortage of Workers
  • Review Relevant Literature
  • Upcoming Research Study Design
  • Study Purpose
  • Sampling
  • Research Questions

3
Example Occupations
4
Future Needs
  • Careers related to services for older adults have
    the highest projected employment growth rate by
    2014
  • (Texas Workforce Commission, 2008)

5
Statement of the Problem
6
Current Situations
  • Older populations (65) in the U.S. reached 35.9
    million in July 2003 or approximately 12 of the
    total population.
  • (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005)
  • Texas had over one million older populations in
    2000. Four counties ranked among the top 50
    counties in the U.S. which had the largest
    percentage of older populations
  • Harris (252,895)
  • Dallas (178,872)
  • Bexar (144,398)
  • Tarrant (120,585)
  • (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005)

7
Current Challenges
  • Currently in the Texas high school curriculum,
    two courses related to aging studies are
    offered
  • (Texas Education Agency, 2008)
  • However, only three teachers in Texas taught
    Services for Older Adults during 2005-06
    academic year.
  • These occupations may not be receiving an
    emphasis.
  • (Public Education Information Management System,
    2008)

8
List of Courses
9
Review of Literature
10
Attitudes toward Older Adults
  • Older individuals are most likely negatively
    stereotyped by children aged 10 and 11,
    adolescents, undergraduates, and older adults
    themselves.
  • (Falchikov,1990 Doka, 1985, 1986 Levin, 1988
    Sanders et al., 1990 Hummert et al., 1994)
  • ImplicationStereotypes may limit interest in
    investigating these occupations.

11
Attitudes toward Older Adults
  • Individuals views on aging are formed by
    interactions with older adults during
    development.
  • (Sanders, Montgomery, Pittman, Jr.,
    Balkwell,1984 Tan, Zhang, Fan, 2004)
  • ImplicationMore positive interactions may
    increase an interest in occupations serving older
    adults.

12
Changes of Attitudes toward Older Adults
  • Two of the most effective approaches to change
    individuals attitudes toward older adults
  • intergenerational service learning
  • inclusion of materials on aging into high school
    and college curricula
  • Intergenerational service learning creates
    meaningful interactions between generations.
  • (Dorfman, Murty, Ingram, Evans, Power, 2004)

13
Changes of Attitudes toward Older Adults
  • For children,
  • face-to-face interactions were found to be more
    effective than merely knowledge transfer about
    aging
  • (Russell, Die, Walker, 1986)
  • For young adults,
  • have fewer stereotyped views and misperceptions
    of elders,
  • more insight into elders lives
  • greater appreciation for older people
  • (Greene, 1998 Pine, 1997 Blieszner Artale,
    2001 Brown Roodin, 2001).

14
Attitudes toward Working with Older Adults
  • Factors affecting individuals career choices
    include
  • had frequent interactions with older adults
  • have taken gerontology courses/lessons,
  • have taken care of an elder during childhood
  • (Cummings, Adler, and DeCosters, 2005 Krount
    McKernan, 2007 Robert Mosher-Ashley, 2000)
  • In Robert Mosher-Ashleys (2000) study, three
    highest factor ratings are found in undergraduate
    students
  • work with elderly persons was the challenging
    nature of the work
  • positive experiences with older adults
  • the desire to work in a new field

15
Gerontology Inclusion in Existing Curriculum
  • Bonavias (2000) ten year review (1989-1999)
    indicated that
  • New York State has been offering gerontology as
    an elective course under FCS curricula since 1989
  • 137 of 318 teachers included gerontology in their
    courses
  • only 3 of these teachers spent more than 18
    weeks covering materials on aging in their
    courses
  • only four teachers taught the gerontology
    elective course
  • especially, career opportunities in aging were
    not specifically addressed, such as Career
    Relationship, the Home Care Assistant, and the
    Entrepreneur

16
AchieveTexas Resources
17
College and Career Planning Guides
  • Health Sciences, Human Services

18
Programs of Study Models
  • Health Sciences, Human Services

19
Upcoming Research Study
20
Purpose of the Study
  • First, it seeks to understand how Texas high
    school students view about elderly and their
    attitudes about working with elderly after
    graduation.
  • Second, it seeks to investigate whether Texas
    high school students have access and exposure to
    knowledge and training related to aging.
  • Therefore, the research findings will
  • add to the limited body of literature and
  • aid the development of gerontology education in
    Texas.

21
Sampling
  • Subjects
  • 9th to 12th grade students in Texas high schools
  • Requirement
  • Have taken or are currently taking courses in
    Human Services or Health Sciences career clusters
    prior to March 2009

22
Sampling
  • Recruitment
  • Through high school teachers who teach courses in
    those two career clusters
  • Study advertisement
  • Teachers professional development conferences
  • Electronic solicitations
  • Research webpage

23
Research Questions
24
QUESTIONS???Thank you FOR ATTENDING!
  • Texas Tech University
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