CEOA Scale - Blurred Perception of Older Adults Resulting from Limited Intergenerational Contact

This study introduces the Children's Empathy for Older Adults (CEOA) eight-item scale, a novel image-based instrument designed to measure young children's views, empathy, and behavioural intentions toward older adults. CEOA was administered as a pre-test and post-test metric, following storytelling sessions, on 232 children aged 5-6 years in the multi-racial and multi-cultural context, Singapore. Findings revealed that children with regular exposure to grandparents demonstrated clearer, more distinct responses across all three domains, indicating a more developed understanding of older adults’ needs. In contrast, children without such exposure showed less differentiation between cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. These results underscore the importance of intergenerational contact in shaping children’s perceptions and empathy for older adults. The CEOA scale is a valuable tool for future research and interventions aimed at fostering positive intergenerational relationships.