title: Death anxiety and ageist attitudes are related to trainees' interest in working with older adults.
abstract: To explore how psychology trainee death concerns and ageist behavior relate to their willingness and desire to work with older adults.
  
  
  
  Trainees (N = 104; 80.8% women) completed the Death Thought-Accessibility Measure, Relating to Older People Evaluation (ROPE), Death Anxiety Scale-Extended (DASE), and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and rated their willingness and desire to work with older adults and their willingness to obtain training on how to work with older adults.
  
  
  
  Pearson correlations showed that salience of death-related thoughts, death anxiety (but not general anxiety), and negative behaviors toward older adults were significantly negatively associated with trainees' willingness and desire to work with older adults. Regressions revealed that negative behaviors toward older adults was the strongest factor associated with willingness and desire to work with older adults, whereas positive behaviors toward older adults was the strongest factor associated with being willing to obtain training in working with older adults. Death anxiety and salience of death-related thoughts positively correlated with each other and were each positively associated with negative behaviors toward older adults.
  
  
  
  Helping graduate trainees become more comfortable with mortality and changing negative behaviors toward older adults may increase their interest in gerontology and geriatrics.
authors.affiliation: a Albizu University-Miami Campus , Doral , Florida , USA.
authors.forename: Marcela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mejia
authors.affiliation: a Albizu University-Miami Campus , Doral , Florida , USA.
authors.forename: Scott M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hyman
authors.affiliation: a Albizu University-Miami Campus , Doral , Florida , USA.
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Behbahani
authors.affiliation: a Albizu University-Miami Campus , Doral , Florida , USA.
authors.forename: Kristen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Farrell-Turner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D063506:Ageism / Q000523:psychology*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011586:Psychology, Clinical / Q000193:education*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Ageism; clinical psychology; counseling psychology; death anxiety; death awareness; geriatrics; trainees