Children's perceptions of aging adults: An exploration of differences in Caribbean Panama

JIM MITCHELL, JOHN BORT, AND JAMES SABELLA*

CHILDREN’S PERCEPTIONS OF AGING ADULTS: AN EXPLORATION OF DIFFERENCES IN

CARIBBEAN PANAMA

ABSTRACT. Sketches of younger, middle-aged, and older black and white male and female adults were used with an index of descriptive items to elicit children’s perceptions of older adults in the communities of Bocas de1 Toro and Almirante, Panama. The results of the interviews and ethnographic fieldwork suggest that the b!ack children viewed older adults who are female or white more positively across four identified subdimensions of the index of children’s perceptions. There were no differences in children’s perceptions by the age category of the older adults represented. The relationship of the findings to socio- economic change within the communities and households was discussed.

Key Words: aging, Panama, children’s perceptions, intergenerational relationships, wage labor, cultural change.

Research focusing on the perception of elderly people in societies other than the United States is limited. That which has been done consists primarily of ethnographic descriptions of the association between the traditional age-related authority of the elderly and sociocultural change accompanying economic development (Amoss 1981; Nason 198 1; Press and McKool 1972). The purpose of this article is to explore the effect of the age of older adults, among other demographic characteristics, upon the perceptions that a population of Black Carib (or Antillano) children have of older adults. The research that is reported here was done in two communities on the Caribbean coast of Panama. This research question will be explored in light of the broader issue of the impact of economic development and wage labor participation upon traditional patterns of intergenerational relationships.

The underlying theme in the literature describing aging in societies other than the United States is the description of the loss among elderly people of the age-related authority that comes with the intergenerational transfer of property. This basis for authority is challenged by wage labor participation among younger adults and their ability to procure goods and services independently. Nason (1981), for example, contends that wage labor intrusion in a Micronesian community led to a general devaluation of land which, in turn, jeopardized the traditional authority of elderly people. With wage labor, the importance of the transfer of land from older to younger family members declined. Similarly, according to Fischer (1979), the availability of new sources of wealth, including land, in colonial America contributed to the reversal of a predominantly geronto- cratic authority structure.

Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 2 (1987) 297-320. 0 1987 by D. Reidel Publishing Company.

298 JIM MITCHELL ET AL.

Another implicit conflict in the literature is whether the traditional maternal or “mother-headed” Carib (Garifuna) or Antillano family structure (c.f. Gonzalez 1969, 1971, 1979; Kerns 1977; Smith 1956) and its associated values can be maintained in the face of changes such as the value of economic achievement that comes with increasing wage labor participation. Gonzalez emphasizes the effect of wage labor related male absenteeism in her description of the fluid household residential pattern of the Garifuna:

Children nearly always live with their mother or various members of her kin. Although some fathers remain attached to their female partners . even these are likely to spend long periods of time away from home (1979: 356).

Fathers are described as figures who either contribute periodically to a constantly changing household unit that is dominated by maternal kin or they cultivate a closer relationship with their children that leads, in some cases, to the children living with them. With unstable relationships among parents, and a household that Gonzalex describes as a “constantly changing unit,” fathers may become peripheral fingures. Children, according to Gonzalez, may have only limited interaction with paternal kin. It seems that wage labor participation as a means toward economic achievement affects both the traditional Black Carib (Garifuna and Antillano) family residential patterns and the status of elderly people that tends to accompany subsistence level or small-scale economic activities.

The bulk of the research on children’s perceptions of the elderly is grounded in attitude formation theory (Hickey and Kalish 1968; Jantz, Seefeldt, Galper and Serock 1977; Seefeldt, Jantz, Galper and Serock 1977; Thomas and Yamamoto 1975). According to the proponents of this approach, the beliefs, values, and attitudes that are internalized by children remain as relatively stable forces into adulthood (see, for example, Klausmeier and Ripple 1971). Klausmeier and Goodwin (1966) describe attitudes as enduring personal attributes learned in interaction with others that affect the emotional and behavioral acceptance or avoidance of others. This paper is to add to the work of others who question the continued salience of the traditional values accompanying age and gender-dominated household interaction patterns and the ideal of monogamy and the nuclear family among the Antillano (Black Carib) in the face of economic change. Attitude formation theory suggests that the changes and disruption in household interaction described above will affect the values that influence children’s perceptions’ of or attitudes toward older adults. The methodology used in this research includes the use of a structured interview to assess the perceptions that children have of older male and female black and white adults of different ages.

CHILDREN’S PERCEPTIONS OF AGING IN PANAMA 299

CHILDREN’S PERCEPTIONS OF AGING

The research describing children’s perceptions of the elderly has been done largely in the United States. Sheehan (1978) used color slides to conclude that children are able to identify physiological characteristics associated with aging. Others have used images from newspapers (Thomas and Yamamoto 1975) and sketches of older adults (Mitchell, Wilson, Revicki and Parker 1985) in their work with children as research subjects. They agree that by middle childhood, children are able to assign ages to images of older adults that are relatively accurate.

The findings become inconclusive, however, when children are asked to make value judgements or evaluations of elderly peopie on a positive to negative dimension. There are those who report either neutral or positive childrens’ evaluations (cf. Baggett and Dickinson 1978) while others report that children react negatively toward aging (Jantz et al. 1977). The work of Seefeldt et al. (1977) and Mitchell and others (1985) suggests that these mixed findings may be a methodological artifact resulting from considering either children, children’s perceptions, or older adults as homogeneous. In their work with a sample of children in the United States, Mitchell et al. (1985) identified three subdimensions of an index of children’s perceptions. The subdimensions were labeled the perceptions of personality characteristics, affective relations, and physical abilities. They found that the United States sample of children viewed older adults as less aggressive and having more positive personality characteristics than younger adults. As the age category of adults increased, the children perceived the older adults as less capable, physically, than the younger adults.

Mitchell and Mathews (1985) used the same interview procedure as that used above to measure children’s perceptions of older adults in the community of Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Children’s perceptions were, again, found to be multidimensional. Con- sistent with the observations of Gonzalez (1969, 1971, 1979) and others, older women were perceived by the Costa Rican children as having authority and being in control of economic resources. Younger men were perceived more favorably by the children on another dimension. They were more likely than older men or women to be viewed by the children as fun to be with. These findings support the predominance of the female presence in the household and the need to treat children’s perceptions of older adults as a more complex phenomenon that transcends measure- ment using a simple good-to-bad continuum.

300 JIM MITCHELL ET AL

THE RESEARCH AREA

The communities of Almirante and Bocas de1 Toro in the Bocas de1 Toro Province of the Republic of Panama served as the research site (see Figure 1). The current settlement patterns and the economic activities of the people in the Province have, over time, been influenced significantly by the banana industry.

Fig. 1. The location of the research communities.

Until the nineteenth century, the only permanent residents of the area that is now the Province were the indigenous Guaymi. Repeated incur- sions by Miskito raiders had forced the Guaymi inland, from the preferred coastal areas to the major river valleys. In the 1800’s, a small number of Antillian people, largely of Jamaican origin, migrated to the Bocas de1 Toro region from the transit zones of Panama City and Colon. These people and other earlier migrants were attracted to the area by the population of turtles. They settled in small subsistence-oriented communities centered around farming and fishing activities. The population of the Province remained sparse and widely dispersed until the advent of the banana industry around the turn of the century.

Bocas de1 Toro is situated on an island in the Laguna de Chiriqui. The community was the first local site of the United Fruit Company (now United Brands), The company purchased bananas from local small-scale producers scattered throughout the islands of the lagoon. Since Bocas de1


Toro was the center of the banana trade, it was also the center of administrative activity in the Province. The community boasted French, English, and United States concilates, the United Fruit Company headquarters, and an array of thriving businesses.

As the banana trade expanded, the demand for fruit outstripped the capacity of the small-scale producers and the United Fruit Company established large-scale banana plantations on the mainland. Almirante then displaced Bocas de1 Toro as the primary center of commerce in the region for the banana industry. Therefore, the economic importance of Bocas de1 Toro declined gradually although many governmental administrative offices remained. With the advent of the plantations, the economy of the area moved from subsistence agricultural and extractive activities (e.g. turtling and fishing) to casual small-scale banana production accom- panied by subsistence activities to larger scale plantation production characterized by wage labor.

Today Bocas de1 Toro is a relatively sleepy community. The population is approximately 2,500 people with about 500 households (Estadistica y Censo 1970). The businesses are oriented toward the provision of goods and services to the people around the lagoon. By water, it is closer for much of the population living around the lagoon to go to Bocas de1 Toro than Almirante to buy goods. In addition to an airport providing service to Changuinola, David, and Panama City, there is a daily launch to carry goods and passengers to Almirante.

Almirante is the second largest community in the Province, with approximately 900 households and a total population estimated at 4,200 (Estadistica y Censo 1970). In addition to maintenance shops, administrative offices and businesses that supply goods and services to the banana company, Almirante has docks for cargo ships, a hospital, a school, a bank, and a variety of businesses. Almirante is linked by a railroad with Changuinola, the largest residential community in the Province and the. administrative headquarters of the banana industry.

The economic marginalization of Bocas de1 Toro has converted it into a community of the young and the old. Few young or middle-aged adults are able to find work on the island so they either commute to Almirante or move to the mainland to find employment. Older people, retired from work on the plantations or dependent upon assistance from their non- resident children, comprise a disproportionately large segment of the population.

The communities of Bocas de1 Toro and Almirante share cultural features with other areas in the Central American Caribbean fringe, including Jamaica, Trinidad, Haiti, and Brazil. Among these characteristics is the household residential and interactional pattern variously labeled as “matrifocal,” “maternal,” or “mother-headed” (Gonzalez 1969, 1971; Kerns 1977; Smith 1956) that was mentioned previously. The predomi-


nance of maternal inffuences among the black Carib, Antillano or Garifuna people is probably due to the traditional gender-related economic activity patterns in the household structure of the Arawak speaking Amerindians of the Amazon basin from whom they likely descended (Gonzalez 1979) and the influence of an increasing dependence upon wage labor. The shift towards a plantation-based banana production system, requiring on-site wage labor, from small-scale production and subsistence level agricultural and extractive activities has likely had a significant impact in the communities of Almirante and Bocas de1 Toro upon the participation of males in household activities, including child rearing, and reliance upon the elderly for their knowledge and property. Gonzalez (196 1) coined the term “recurrent migratory wage labor” to describe an increasing reliance upon wage labor among the Garifuna that draws males away from the household.

Many conjugal unions in the two communities are “common law” with- out church or civil ceremony. The rates of separation and abandonment are high. The family instability is exacerbated by the uncertain employment opportunities for men. The banana industry cannot supply enough jobs to meet the demand and work, particularly for younger men, is frequently sporadic and often very difficult to find. This instability in employment leads to irregular economic contributions to the household and periods of absence while looking for work. Faced with uncertainties, females frequently depend upon extended kinship ties for some semblance of economic security. Brothers, adult children, parents, and a husband or temporary partner may all contribute cash and food to help support the households.

THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The authors are uncertain whether the age of older adults will significantly effect children’s perceptions. Since the plantation-based banana production system and the move away from casual production and harvesting was quite firmly entrenched by the 1920’s, it may be that traditional age- related household authority patterns and the dependence of younger people upon the knowledge and property of elders have broken down. To see if the finding of Mitchell and Mathews (1985) that older females are perceived more positively on some dimensions of children’s perceptions than younger males is replicated in the present research, the age of the older adults is included as an independent variable.

Given the importance of females in the literature describing household residential patterns among the Black Carib, the sex of older adults is also included as an independent variable. The authors expect that adult females


will generally be perceived more positively by the children than adult males.

Since white adults occupy most of the managerial and professional positions in both the government and the banana industry in the two communities, whether older adults are black or white is included as a research question. Earlier research in the U.S. (Goodman 1952) indicated a pro-white bias among black children who were shown photographs of other children. Although there seems to be evidence of a trend away from a white bias among black children in the United States (Durrett and Davy 1970; Rohrer 1977), the clear relationship between skin color and job status in the research communities and the likhhood that the children ascribe to the value of economic achievement (see, for example, Braith- wane 1971) suggest that the children will view white adults more positively. It is also possible, however, that the children will perceive older adults who are the same race as those who are responsible for their primary socialization in the home more positively. The majority oft the population in the two communities is black. Since the indian population was too small to provide a meaningful comparison, they were excluded from the analysis.

Research findings suggest that the age of children may affect their perceptions of older adults. Thomas and Yamamoto (1975) found that the accuracy of the perceptions that children have of older adults was affected by the children’s age. Gonzalez (1979) discovered that the age and sex of Garifuna children affected the liklihood that they would draw same sex or opposite sex images. Although Mitchell and Mathews (1985) found that the ages of the sample of Black Carib Costa Rican children did not affect their perceptions of older adults, the age of the children was taken into consideration in the present research. The sex of the children is included to assess the liklihood that they view the same or opposite sex adults more positively.

Since multi-generational and nuclear family residence are both common in the study area, the presence or absence of grandparents in the home will also be included as an independent variable. Perhaps children who live with grandparents are likely to perceive elderly adults differently than children who’ do not. Households in the lagoon area are rather fluid, however, and children are likely to interact frequently with elderly people whether they live with them or not.

Additionally, the community of residence of the children is included as an independent variable. Although both Ahnirante and Bocas de1 Toro are influenced heavily by the banana industry, Almirante is more central to the activities of the industry than Bocas de1 Toro. The pace of life on the island is much slower and the economy is geared more toward the casual production of goods to be sold locally and household level


subsistence activities. The effect of these community differences upon children’s perceptions of adults will be considered.

METHODOLOGY

Following the ethnographic exploration of the primary cultural characteristics of the two communities and the gathering of baseline census data, structured interviews were conducted with all of the black children in three schools who could be reached after repeated attempts. A total of 262 children were interviewed. There were not enough children from other ethnic groups to provide a comparison with the black children. Consequently, only black children were interviewed.

In Bocas de1 Toro, a total of 163 children in the two schools were interviewed. Forty-six were students in a Catholic school and the remain ing 117 attended a public school. In Ahnirante, 99 children attending a public school were interviewed. Since all of the black children who attended school and could be reached were interviewed, the authors are confident that the results presented here represent the perceptions of the black children living in the two communities and the surrounding area.

The children were distributed evenly by sex with 127 males and 135 females. The vast majority of the children were in grades 3 to 6. There were only 5 second graders. The ages of the children ranged from 8 to 12 years.

Data describing household residential patterns are shown in Figure 2. The diagrams are based upon the responses of 259 children that were judged to be reliable accounts. The vast majority of the children lived with either both of their parents (153 or 59%) or with their mothers (75 or 29%). Including children who lived either with their mothers or with neither parent, 101 (39%) of the children lived in households with the father absent. Only 5 children lived with their father and not their mother. All of these 5 children, however, also lived with grandparents. The diagram illustrates that the children were more than twice as likely to live with their grandmother than with their grandfather.

In general, there is a tendency for the children to live with both parents and no other relatives. Of the 153 children living with both parents, 59 (39%) lived with no other relatives. There is clearly, however, another tendency for multiple generations of family members to live together. Both grandparents lived in the households of 69 (27%) of the children who responded. In 50 of the 69 cases where both grandparents lived in the same household, other relatives were also living with the children. On the other extreme, only one of the 259 children lived with neither parent nor grandparent and no other relative.

The figure, in general, illustrates a pattern of multigenerational kin


(a) Live with Both Parents (N=I53)

//\A and Neither and and and Both

Grandparent Grandmother GEWUlf&ZI Grandparents (88) (16) (10) (39)

JL JL NoOther Other No Other Other NoO6r km NOOC L other Relatives Relatives Relatives Relatives Relatives Relatives Relatives R&&s

(59) (29) (9) (7) (5) (5) (14) (25) .._......_..___...._.....~~~.~......~....~~~................~.~~......~......... _..

(b) Live with Mother (N=75)

/J A\ and Neither and and and Both Grandparent Grandmother Grandfather Grandparents

(47) (10) (3) (15)

(c)Live with Father (N=S)

and and Both GLdlTlDthCX Grandparents

(4) (1)

J4 J\ No Other Other No Other Other R&tiVes Relatives Relatives R&t&S

(2) (2) (0) (1)

(d) Live with Neither Parent (N=26)

and Neither Grandmmtt

and Grandmother

and Grandfather

and Both Grandparents csi (6) (1) (141

JL JL J\ No Other Other No Other Other No aher Other R&iVe+ R&XiVCS Relatives Relatives Relatives Relaoves

(1) (3 (0) (1) (0) (14)

Fig. 2. Tree diagrams describin g the household residential patterns of the children (total = 259).

living together in a household. There is also a tendency, however, for some family residential units to be quite small. As stated previously, 59 (39%) of the children who report living with both parents live with neither grandparent and no other relative. This tendency is reinforced by 29 children out of 75 (39%) who live only with their mothers and no other relatives. The smaller number of people living in some of the homes could be, in part, because the banana company built smaller houses suited to a nuclear family unit to be used by some of the workers. This residential information appears to be generally consistent with other descriptions in the literature of fluid, multigenerational household residential patterns


with a strong maternal influence in company with the protestant tendency towards nuclear families.

There was more of a tendency among the children from the Catholic school in Bocas de1 Toro to live with their grandparents. This residential pattern may be due to parents sending their children to live with their grandparent(s) in order to attend the private school.

The individual interviews with the children were conducted in Spanish by trained interviewers. Teachers released their students to be interviewed in a private area centrally located in each school. The first section of the interview recorded demographic and residential information. In the second section, black and white photographs of sketches of both black and white male and female older adults at three ages were used in conjunction with an index based upon various descriptive terms. Reduced reproduc- tions of the sketches are presented in Figure 3. The height of the faces in the photographs of the sketches that were used was approximately 8 inches. The children were asked to respond to each statement in an index in a yes or no format to describe their impressions of the person represented by the sketch. Each child evaluated only one sketch.

The adults represented by the sketches were “aged” using a process described by Mitchell et al. (1985). An artist used transparent overlays to accentuate the physical changes in a younger person commonly associated with middle and later adulthood. The validity of this process in representing people who are younger, middle-aged, and older adults is supported by the mean ages assigned to the people in the sketches by the children in other research setting (Mitchell et al. 1985; Mitchell and Mathews 1985).

Following the evaluation of the person in the sketch, each child provided an estimation of the age of the adult. The means and standard deviations of the ages assigned the sketches in each age category offer further support for the validity of the sketches as representations of adults at three different ages. The mean age assigned the younger adults was 37 (s = 23) that for th e middle-aged adults was 5 1.8 (s = 24), and the mean for the older adults was 64 (s = 23). Although the mean ages assigned to the black and white younger adults were similar (37 for the blacks and 38 for the whites) the standard deviation of the ages was considerably larger for the sketch of the white younger adult (15 years for the blacks and 28 for the whites). This could be due to either the characteristics of the sketches of the whites or the greater familiarity of the children with the characteristics of blacks. In any case, the mean ages assigned are suffi- ciently different to warrant their acceptance as visual stimuli representing adults of different ages.

The index used to measure children’s perceptions used statements constructed around polarized adjectives. There were 48 evaluative statements included in the interview guide. Factor analysis was used to reduce this number to the list of items presented in Table I. This technique is


Fig. 3. The sketches of the older adults.


TABLE I Factor analysis of the items in the index of children’s perceptions

Item” (English) Rotated factors

1 2 3 4

Does s/he say thank you for things? Is s/he gentle? Is s/he calm? Is s/he loving? Does s/he have good manners? Is s/he good? Is s/he mean? b Does s/he work hard? Does s/he make you feel happy? Would you like to spend some time with this person? Does this person make you feel good? Does this person scare you? b Is s/he messy? b Is s/he whiny? b Does s/he say bad words?b Does s/he get into fights?b Does s/he own a big house? Does s/he have a good job? Does s/he look good?

0.62 -0.03 0.16 0.09 0.61 -0.02 -0.07 0.04 0.59 0.07 -0.18 -0.10 0.47 0.11 0.02 0.14 0.43 0.15 0.03 0.18 0.41 0.33 0.08 -0.08 0.40 -0.09 0.34 -0.01 0.35 -0.04 0.09 0.28 0.10 0.80 -0.10 0.02

-0.10 0.67 0.04 0.17

0.12 0.61 0.05 -0.05 0.00 0.47 0.20 -0.02 0.03 -0.01 0.64 -0.04

-0.26 0.10 0.63 0.06 0.08 0.02 0.56 0.03 0.35 0.06 0.38 -0.16

-0.03 0.01 0.07 0.57 0.66 0.14 0.11 0.39 0.10 0.18 -0.02 0.28

a The response format was: (0) no, and (1) yes. b The codes of these items were reversed in the analysis.

used often to assess the internal consistency and enhance the parsimony of multiple-item measures of abstract concepts (Kerlinger 1986). The procedure is useful both to identify subdimensions or clusters of related items within an index and to assess the unidimensionality of the total index. Since children’s perceptions can be assumed to contain related subdimensions, the rotation referred to in Table I is oblique rather than orthogonal. Orthogonal rotation assumes that any subdimensions are, theoretically, independent from each other. Following various trials, a four-factor solution was applied based upon the eigen-value rule, the consideration of factor parsimony (Cattell 1978), and the unidimensionality of the global measure of children’s perceptions.

The relative strength of the loadings in the rotated factors (shown in italics) in Table I suggests the existence of four subdimensions. The subdimensions were labeled according to the conceptual similarity of the adjectives that serve as the focal point of the items.

The adjectives in the items in the first subdimension (rotated factor 1) suggest the child’s evaluation of the person in the sketch as gentle, loving,


or good. The label, positive personal characteristics, is used to describe an evaluation based apparently upon the person rather than the potential for interaction with the person.

The label of the second subdimension (rotated factor 2), affective characteristics, reflects the tendency of the items to describe how the person in the sketch makes the child feel. All of the items are in the positive direction.

The third subdimension (rotated factor 3), negative interpersonal traits, is apparently the child’s evaluation of largely negative qualities that are manifested in interaction with the person. The nature of the adjectives, such as whiny and using bad words, suggests that people with these traits would be seen by the children as rather undesirable.

The final subdimension (rotated factor 4) economic resources, is composed of only three items. The factor loadings for the items are variable enough to question whether they measure “economic resources.” Given the different economic characteristics of the two communities, the theoretical significance of this particular subdimension for cross-cultural comparisons, and comparison with other research findings, the decision of the authors was to retain the factor. Given the loadings, the interpretation of findings related to it should be treated with caution.

The internal reliability coefficients support, in general, the internal reliability of each subdimension. The coefficients are equal to 0.93 for the positive personal characteristics subdimension, 0.84 for affective characteristics, 0.76 for negative interpersonal traits, and 0.47 for economic resources. The diminished strength of the latter coefficient is due, in part, to the small number of items in the subdimension and to the questionable relevance of the imputed indicators to a child’s assessment of the economic resources of older adults. Mathematically, the strength of the alpha reliability coefficient varies directly with the number of items in an index or a subdimension of an index. Consequently, a smaller coefficient is expected when there are only three items.

The four subdimensions suggest that “children’s perceptions” has greater utility when the subdimensions are treated as separate variables in place of the total index. Consequently, the four subdimensions were treated as dependent variables in the analysis.

FINDINGS

The results presented here are based upon the use of a multiple analysis of variance procedure with, first, the characteristics of the children as the independent variables and, secondly, the characteristics of the older adults as independent variables. The findings describing the separate and combined effects will be presented in two sections, according to whether the


characteristics of the children or the adults are the independent variables. The responses to the items were coded so that a larger mean denoted more positive perceptions.

Children’s Characteristics

Table II presents the means and standard deviations of the responses, by subdimension, to the items in the index by the characteristics of the children. The minimum and maximum means possible, given the response codes and the number of items, are included at the bottom of the table.

TABLE II The response characteristics of children’s perceptions by subdimension by selected

children’s characteristics

Positive personal” Affectiveb

Negative Economic interpersonal c resourcesd

Characteristic N M SD M SD M SD M SD

Total Mean Sex

Males Females

Age

127 135

8 46 9 49

10 70 11 60 12 37

School AImirante 99 Bocas 117 BWsW

46 (Catholic)

Grandparent(s) in Residence

Neither 140 Grandmother 36 Grandfather 14 Both 69

6.78 3.25 2.23 1.86

6.83 1.79 3.31 1.12 2.19 1.01 1.87 0.99 6.73 1.94 3.19 1.29 2.27 0.99 1.83 0.96

6.91 1.28 3.48 0.94 2.43 0.91 1.98 0.91 6.80 1.82 3.37 1.11 2.37 0.97 2.14 0.91 6.67 2.14 3.07 1.41 2.16 1.00 1.73 0.98 6.95 1.78 3.30 1.18 2.15 1.04 1.63 0.99 6.51 2.14 3.05 1.25 2.08 1.04 1.92 1.04

6.96 1.73 3.48 0.99 2.20 0.97 2.02 0.96 6.58 2.10 3.19 1.33 2.22 1.03 1.79 1.00

6.89 1.45 2.89 1.21 2.33 0.97 1.65 0.90

6.58 2.06 3.16 1.30 2.32 0.91 1.79 0.99 6.97 1.94 2.97 1.44 2.06 1.16 1.94 1.08 6.71 2.12 3.21 1.12 1.64 1.28 1.64 1.21 7.09 1.27 3.58 0.79 2.24 1.00 2.03 0.82

a The minimum possible mean is 0 and the maximum is 8. b The minimum possible mean is 0 and the maximum is 4. ’ The minimum possible mean is 0 and the maximum is 4. d The minimum possible mean is 0 and the maximum is 3.


The results presented in Table II indicate that there are no significant differences in the means representing the children’s evaluation of the adult’s positive personal characterictics by the children’s sex, age, and school and whether they live with grandparents. There is a tendency for children who live with their grandparents to evaluate older adults more positively, but the means are equal, statistically. The multiple interaction effects among the independent variables were examined for each subdimension and were not significant statistically (p > 0.05).

When the effect of the characteristics of the children upon their responses to the items in the affective subdimension were considered, it was found that, in comparison with the total mean (3.2-Q the means corresponding to the three schools indicate that the children from the Catholic school in Bocas de1 Toro (2.89) evaluated the adults less positively than those from the public school in the same community (3.19). Children in the public school in Almirante (3.48) had the most positive evaluations of older adults (F = 4.19, p < 0.02). This pattern of mean differences was also present when the effects of the other characteristics were controlled (F = 4.83, p < 0.01).

When the mean evaluations of the affective subdimension were sorted by the categories of the remaining characteristics of the children, the results indicated a significance difference in children’s perceptions by whether or not they lived with grandparents (F = 3.01, p < 0.03). The means in the bottom of the second column in Table II show that children who lived with both grandparents perceived the older adults most positively (3.58), followed by children who lived with the grandfather (3.21) neither grandparent (3.16), and, finally, the grandmother (2.97).

The mean differences at the bottom of the third column of means in Table II indicate that there is a tendency for children living with either no grandparents or both grandparents to evaluate the negative interpersonal traits of the older adults more positively than those who live with one grandparent. The means, however, are not different statistically (p > 0.05). Perhaps one grandparent in the household is a sign of the dependence of the grandparent upon the child’s family which could strain intergenerational relationships.

The differences in children’s perceptions of the economic resources of the older adults are presented on the right side of Table II. The means show that children in Almirante (2.02) tend to evaluate the older adults more positively than the children in Bocas de1 Toro (1.79 for the public school and 1.65 for the Catholic school) (F = 3.30, p < 0.04). Children in the Catholic school had the most negative perceptions of the economic resources of the older adults. This is generally consistent with the dilapidated state of the houses and the idleness of the adults in Bocas de1 Toro.

The means describing the children’s evaluation of the material “success”


of older adults by the ages of the children are significantly different from each other when the effects of the remaining independent variables in Table II are controlled (F = 2.34, p < 0.05). There is, however, no younger-to-older or older-to-younger consistent pattern. The children who were 11 years old evaluated the resources of the adults most negatively (1.63), while those who were 9 years old had the most positive evaluations (2.14). Other than these specific differences, no pattern is discernible.

Adults’ Characteristics

Means illustrating the children’s perceptions by the sex, race, and age of the person in the sketches according to the four subdimensions can be found in Table III. When the positive personal characteristics of the older adults are considered, the mean evaluation for the female adults (7.03) is significantly more positive than that for the males (6.54) (F = 5.37, p < 0.02). This finding is consistent with both the economic marginality of the males discussed previously and the descriptions of the Afro-Caribbean population groups found elsewhere (cf. Gonzalez 1969, 1979; Kerns 1983).

TABLE III The response characteristics of children’s perceptions by subdimension by adults’ sex, race,

and age

Characteristic N

Positive Negative Economic personal” Affective b interpersonal” resourcesd

M SD M SD M SD M SD

Total Mean Sex

Male Female

Race Black White

Age

6.78 3.25 2.23 1.86

136 6.54 1.99 3.10 1.30 2.13 1.04 1.84 1.20 126 7.03 1.69 3.40 1.08 2.35 0.93 1.87 0.93

144 6.63 2.00 3.10 1.36 2.12 1.04 1.71 0.99 118 6.96 1.69 3.43 0.96 2.36 0.93 2.03 0.92

Young 90 6.92 1.88 3.34 1.11 2.23 0.99 1.91 0.98 Middle-Aged 88 6.73 1.98 3.08 1.36 2.11 1.05 1.79 1.00 Older 84 6.68 1.73 3.32 1.13 2.36 0.93 1.86 0.96

a The minimum possible mean is 0 and the maximum is 8. b The minimum possible mean is 0 and the maximum is 4. c The minimum possible mean is 0 and the maximum is 4. d The minimum possible mean is 0 and the maximum is 3.


Other findings relevant to children’s perceptions of adult’s positive personal characteristics include an apparent tendency for younger adults to be evaluated more positively than the elderly. This trend is not, however, significant (p > 0.05). There is also a tendency for these black children to perceive the white adults (6.96) more positively than the black adults (6.63). This becomes more pronounced when the effects of the sex and the age of the adults are controlled (F = 3.88, p < 0.05).

The second subdimension in Table III, the perception children have of the affective characteristics of the adults, is influenced clearly by the sex and race of the adults. Females are, again, perceived more favorably by the children (3.40), or more likely to lead one to feel good, than the males (3.10) (F = 4.72, P < 0.03). It appears that, to the.children, female adults are generally more expressive than males.

The children indicated that the while adults (3.43) rather than blacks (3.10) are more likely to help them feel good. Contrary to what would be expected given the predominantly black population of the area and the family milieu, it seems that the black children would prefer to spend time with white adults. This pattern remains when the effects of the other characteristics of the adults are controlled (F = 5.62, p < 0.02). Once again, the perceptions of the children do not appear to be influenced by the age category of the adults in the sketches. Age has little effect both independently and in combination with the sex and race of the adults.

The means associated with the third subdimension, negative interpersonal traits, show that, consistent with the previous results, females (2.35) are perceived as having more positive interpersonal traits than males (2.13) (F = 4.30, p < 0.04). It can be seen that, again, the white older adults (2.36) are perceived by the children as less likely to manifest the negative interpersonal traits than the black adults (2.12). This pattern is significant when the independent effect of race is considered (F = 3.86, p -C 0.05) and when the effect is combined with the influence of the adults’ age and sex (F = 7.79, p < 0.006).

The means in the lower portion of the third column of means in Table III indicate that the children perceive the younger and older adults less negatively than the middle-aged adults. The difference among the means, however, is not significant (p < 0.05). This could suggest that the middle- aged adults are more likely to be the disciplinarians or it could be a response resulting from the inability of the family providers to meet the economic expectations of the children.

The column of means on the right side of Table III illustrates the differential perceptions that the children have of the economic resources or productivity of the adults. The means by sex are relatively equal. This leads to a conclusion that males and females are perceived by the children in both communities as equally prosperous.

According to the means in Table III, the children perceive white adults


(2.03) as having more economic resources than black older adults (1.71) (F = 6.99, p < 0.009). This difference remains when the additional effects of the age and sex of the adults are taken into consideration in the analysis (F= 6.81,~ < 0.01).

It can be seen at the bottom of the column that the means show a tendency for the children to perceive both the younger (1.9 1) and the older (1.86) adults more favorably on the economic subdimension than they perceive the middle-aged adults (1.79). The middle aged adults are supposed to be the most active economically. Yet this group has difficulty with regard to unemployment or underemployment. This tentative pattern and that associated with the perception of negative interpersonal traits are the only discernible difference in children’s perceptions of adults by the age of the subjects. Contrary to the findings of Mitchell and Mathews (1985) with the Costa Rican children, age is apparently not a salient characteristic in children’s perceptions of adults in the two Panamanian communities.

DISCUSSION

The findings suggest that children from the two communities perceive older adults differently in an affective sense. The children from Almirante have a tendency to perceive older adults more positively than those from either of the two Bocas de1 Toro schools. Additionally, children who are living with their grandmothers manifest more negative perceptions of the interpersonal qualities of older adults than children who live with both of their grandparents, neither grandparent, or their grandfather.

These findings are understandable when they are viewed in terms of the differences in the school and household environments of the two communities. Since more of the young adult population is likely to be absent from Bocas due to job demands, older adults are often placed in the role of authority figures than would be the case in Almirante. In Almirante, older adults will often play the role of “friend” with discipline being adminis- tered by younger adults. In Bocas, a recurrent theme of the community’s decline and a sense of failure is often expressed. Unfavorable comparisons of the present conditions with the former glory of Bocas are made in light of the “progress” of mainland communities such as Almirante and Changuinola. It is highly likely that these references are conveyed to children and reflected in their perceptions of the economic resources of the older adults.

The relatively negative image in Bocas is reinforced further by the experience that children have in the schools. The school sample in Bocas that manifested the most negative perceptions were the children from the Catholic school that was staffed by Columbian nuns. Observation and

CHILDREN’S PERCEPTIONS OF AGING IN PANAMA 31.5

conversations with the nuns revealed their decidedly negative views of the cultural patterns and the population of the community. Disparaging remarks and expressions of disapproval were pronounced and they were conveyed frequently to the students. This disapproval is manifested in the more negative perception of the economic resources of older adults among the children in the Catholic school. The public school teachers, from Bocas but educated in other areas, may have conveyed to the children a slightly less negative but still decidedly negative image of the community. With one exception, the teachers were unhappy and seemed to lack a commitment to their jobs. Most of them had other economic pursuits in addition to teaching and they often canceled classes when other activities conflicted with teaching. They also indicated their desire to either get “better” jobs or move to what are viewed as more desirable areas. They repeatedly made remarks indicating a poor image of the students and the population of the island in general (e.g. lazy, unmotivated, stupid or worthless).

The school in Almirante was also staffed with teachers from the area - either Almirante or Bocas. There were difficulties, such as teacher absenteeism, but the subjective impression gained from visiting with the teachers is one of more satisfaction with their situations than the teachers in Bocas. Their views of the students and the general population seemed to be more positive than those expressed by the teachers from the other community. Almirante, however, is less isolated than Bocas. There is more activity, more commerce, and there are more recreational outlets in Almirante. Additionally, access to other locations in Panama and Costa Rica is not as limited as it is in Bocas.

The influence upon the children’s perceptions of the presence or absence of grandparents in the home highlights another feature of local domestic organization. The households with both grandparents present, and the least negative evaluation of older adults by the children, represent those that are the most stable. The most negative evaluations, associated with the presence of a single grandparent in the home, are probably a reflection of having an aged person present who has suffered the loss of a spouse through death or abandonment. Such individuals are often dependent upon their children and would be more likely to be dissatisfied with their situation. The situation where the grandmother lives in the household resulted in the least positive perceptions of affective characteristics. This is also understandable given both the logic above and the likelihood that the grandmother will act as a disciplinarian in the home. Mitchell and Mathews (1985) found that, in Costa Rica, children were more likely to view older females as authority figures. Having no grandparents in the home suggests less direct daily influence from grandparents of either a negative or positive nature.

The characteristics of the older adults in the sketches that affected the


perceptions of the children, by subdimension, were whether the ad&s represented were black or white and whether they were male or female. Interestingly, the ages of the adults had very little influence on the direction of the childrens’ responses to the polar adjectives in the index. Mitchell and Mathews (1985) found that children in a Caribbean Costa Rican subsistence level community perceived older adults as having significantly more authority and control of economic resources than younger adults. This finding was not replicated in the present analysis. The effect of the sex and race of the adults upon the children superseded that of the adults’ age.

The differences from the results from Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, probably reflect the differences in the economic conditions of the two areas. Wage labor, the province of the young, is far more important for the Panamanian population described here. The control of resources that are more important in a subsistence level economy is of less importance in the Panamanian communities. The relative power and control by older adults is thereby significantly reduced. Interestingly, the findings of Mitchell et al. (1985) describing the perceptions of a sample of U.S. children, indicate that children see elderly adults as fun to be with but lacking control of resources or physical abilities. These findings beg the question of the salience of a negative linear relationship between development (indicated by wage labor participation) and the status of the elderly (see, for example, Cowgill and Holmes 1972). This must be moderated, however, by the realization that the characterization of the two research communities as “moderately developed” is questionable at best. Additional work in a variety of cross-sectional and longitudinal formats with multiple indicators of “development” is necessary to assess the impact of changing economic conditions upon intergenerational relationships.

The children from the two communities consistently perceived female adults more favorably than males. This pattern was significant statistically for the positive personal characteristics, affective, and negative interpersonal traits subdimensions of the index of children’s perceptions of older adults. These results are expected, given the literature describing the central role of females in the homes and the often marginal and erratic role of male adults. In Puerto Viejo, however, the children perceived male adults more positively than female adults on an interactional subdimension. This suggests that, in that community, the male adult presence in the household and interaction with children is more pronounced.

Although all of the children who were interviewed were black, white adults were perceived more positively by the children across all four of the subdimensions. The consistency of this finding across the four subdimensions of children’s perceptions suggests that white adults are viewed generally as being more gentle, loving and good people than black adults.


The children described the white adults as able to make them feel happier and better and they viewed the whites as more economically resourceful than the black adults.

The children’s perceptions reflect the historical pattern of status differentiation by ethnicity of the region. With the early large-scale extraction of raw material and the accompanying transformation of the regional economy came the gradual intrusion of white populations. Whites have held dominant positions in the social, economic, religious, and educational hierarchy of the region. Latinos, blacks, and Indians occupy, in descending order, the influential positions in the status hierarchy. Very few whites who are in economically disadvantaged circumstances are encountered. The social contacts of the children in this population with whites are likely to be short-term and pleasant. The United States-based United Fruit Company dominates the region and until recently the more influential local administrators were from the United States. The clergy of the area is both Catholic, given the Spanish influence, and Protestant. Priests from Spain have dominated the organization of the local Catholic Church. White Protestant missionaries visit frequently. They are received warmly and acknowledged by the local black pastors. In sum, the children are not oblivious to these obvious status differences by ethnicity. The question is the impact of the more positive perceptions that the children have of white older adults when they, themselves, are black and the family members who are the primary socialization agents in the home are black. This finding certainly warrants further investigation.

Both the kinship group (cf. Murdock 1971) and status-role differences, including race, (cf. Goodenough 1965; Linton 1936) are recognized as important references in the socialization or enculturation of children. The importance of the family unit in childhood socialization is recognized widely in the psychological, sociological, and social-psychological literature. The consistent finding in this research that the children perceive white adults more positively than blacks does not necessarily question the salience of the importance of the family in childhood socialization. It illustrates, however, the all encompassing nature of the dependence of the regional population upon the banana industry, its associated wage labor, and the salience of status differentials and the value of economic achievement that they imply.

The items in the subdimensions were combined into a total index of children’s perceptions to assess the consistency of the findings according to subdimension. The means resulting from this procedure indicate that the female older adults (14.70) continue to be perceived more positively by the children than the males (13.61) (F = 5.78, p < 0.02). Additionally, white adults (14.79) tend to be, again, perceived more positively by the children than the black adults (13.56) (E; = 7.79, p < 0.006). This


illustrates the significance of the findings by sex and race for both the four subdimensions of children’s perceptions discussed here and a combined measure of children’s perceptions of older adults.

The results presented here suggest that the traditional age-related authority pattern that has been described in many Black Carib or Garifuna communities may be breaking down. In contrast with the findings of Mitchell and Mathews (198.5) using the same methodology in Costa Rica, the ages of the older adults consistently lacked significance in the evaluations of the children. Among these Panamanian children, female adults were perceived more positively than the male adults on three of the four dimensions of children’s perceptions that were identified. Unlike the children in the more subsistence oriented Costa Rican community who perceived adult males as more fun to interact and play with, the children from the communities described here failed to view adult males more positively on any of the subdimensions of the measure of perceptions. This finding emphasizes the peripheral role of males in these Panamanian communities. The implication is that adult males retain certain roles that are perceived positively by children in subsistence oriented maternal or matrifocal Black Carib Communities. This positive perception, however, and the participation of males in household activities apparently dimin- ishes with the extended periods of male absenteeism that accompany dependence upon intermittent wage labor. The importance of the female presence in the household becomes, consequermy, even more pronounced than that in accounts describing the more traditional maternal or motber- headed household structure.

NOTES

* The authors are indebted to the people of the research communities, the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments, and the Fulbright Hays Group Project Abroad for supporting this research. 1 We use the term “perception” to describe a behavioral manifestation of either an attitude (i.e. a predisposition to act) toward older people or a stereotype (i.e. an overgeneralized set of expectations).

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East Carolina University Greenville, NC 27834, U.S.A.

East Carolina University Greenville, NC 2 7834, U.S. A.

University of North Carolina, Wilmington Wilmington, NC 28403-2397, U.S.A.

Children's perceptions of aging adults: An exploration of differences in Caribbean Panama

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