imAGES is an intervention program developed within the SIforAGE project, that aims to fight ageism among children and adolescents based on social psychology theoretical models and techniques of prejudice reduction. This program has a quasi-experimental design and includes three sessions, across two weeks: two learning sessions and one intergroup contact session. In the two learning sessions, younger people were presented with positive examples of older people in order to deconstruct the negative stereotypes towards this age group. By promoting perspective taking and empathy, children learned about the diversity and inter-individual differences between older people in order to reduce their ageist beliefs. In Week 2, younger and older people worked together in intergenerational groups so as to promote a positive and direct intergroup contact.The intervention and control groups completed the same questionnaire in three different stages: before the intervention, after the two learning sessions and after the contact session.A pilot trial of the imAGES program was conducted in Portugal (n=55) with promising results: older people were perceived as more competent and capable after the intervention took place. Similar results were obtained in the implementation of this program in two other European countries: Lithuania (n=53) and Austria (n=19). In both countries, participants showed an improvement in the ratings of older people in ‘competence’ and ‘warmth’ dimensions, expressing feelings of admiration towards this age group. Overall, the results indicate that the imAGES program constitutes a promising avenue to prevent or reduce ageism in children and adolescents in different cultural backgrounds.

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• Psicologia - Ciências Sociais