Purpose: To identify negative attitudes and anxiety levels towards aging and their relationship with socio-demographic variables and co-existence with the elderly, in undergraduate students at the Public Nursing School in Mexico’s northeast.
Methodology: Correlational-Descriptive Design with proportional fixing by gender of 150 undergraduate students, in a Public Nursing School in Mexico’s northeast. This sample had an associated reliability of 95% and an error of 5%, based on the calculation of infinite populations. The instruments that were applied were: socio-demographic format, co-existence with the elderly format and questionnaire about attitudes towards aging, and Anxiety Scale towards aging; which shows an acceptable reliability (Cronbach Alpha= 0.845 and 0.794).
Results: Through statistical tests it was found that Attitudes towards aging had a mean of 40.2 with an standard deviation (SD) of 8.89, for the variable anxiety had a mean of 39 and a SD of 8.29 (both fluctuate between the range of 21 and 63), where, to a higher punctuation, greater presence of negative attitudes and higher anxiety level. In this research, a medium positive correlation was found between attitudes towards aging and anxiety towards aging (r=0.535; p<0.05).
Conclusions: Based on the results found, it can be concluded that negative attitudes and anxiety levels towards aging are present in nursing students, and that such results need to be considered when making Study Plans.
Target audience: The target audiences of this presentation are: nursing researchers and students, clinical nurses interested in the improvement of the aging perception.