By Dr P. U. Bassey
Abstract
This paper explored young people’s perceptions towards the aged. Five (5) hypotheses were formulated to guide the research. A survey method was adopted for the study and the sample size was one thousand, one hundred and sixteen (1,116) SS2 students out a population of ten thousand, five hundred and ninety one (10,591) from 232 public secondary schools. The instrument used for data collection was a thirty-five (35) item questionnaire titled “Youths Perception of the Aged (YPAQ). Data collected was analyzed using the independent t-test, Pearson product moment correlation coefficient and the One-Way Analysis of Variance. The results of data analysis showed that youths perception of the aged in Cross River State was significantly positive. One of the recommendations was that government should organize regular interactive fora to help eliminate negative beliefs and superstitions about the aged.