Judging a book by its older adult cover: age-related expectations and parental preference for children’s books

As they typically have limited direct contact, children’s attitudes towards older adults have more opportunity to be shaped by other social influences such as their parents and children’s literature. Children’s books have been noted for their tendency to portray older adults in stereotypical ways and their tendencies to underrepresent older adults. We investigated how the portrayal of older adults as major versus supporting characters, as well as parents’ age-related expectations were related to parental preference for children’s books. We designed 24 children’s book covers that depicted an older adult as a main character, a younger adult as a main character, or only children. One-hundred-seventy-five parents of children ages 0–12 rated their preference for the covers, their age-related expectations for the books’ stories, and their personal aging expectations. Parents preferred covers featuring only children, and this preference was stronger for parents with more positive personal aging expectations. Cover preference was further predicted by age-related story expectations. When parents expected a book to conform to older-age stereotypes, they liked that particular cover less. Controlling for parents’ age-related story expectations for each book resulted in near equal levels of preference for all types of book covers. Carefully designed children’s books could provide an opportunity to increased vicarious intergenerational contact. These finding suggests that parents’ interest in selecting these books for their children will be higher when they do not perceive the books to align with older-age stereotypes.