Do Feelings and Knowledge About Aging Predict Ageism?

Abstract

Experiencing ageism has been shown to negatively impact older adults. This study investigated predictors of ageism to examine which are most important in accounting for ageist attitudes. Participants (N = 419) between the ages of 18 and 86 completed an online survey assessing ageism and several predictors of ageism. Higher levels of anxiety about aging, lower levels of knowledge of aging, and less frequent and lower quality of contact with older adults uniquely predicted ageism beyond the influence of demographic and well-being factors. Anxiety about aging fully mediated the relationship between death anxiety and ageism, and the relationship between attitudes toward own aging and ageism. Moderation analyses showed that knowledge of aging buffered the impact of anxiety about aging on ageism such that low knowledge of aging and high anxiety about aging were particularly impactful in predicting ageism in younger adults, as compared with older adults.

Keywords

age stereotypes anxiety about aging intergenerational contact attitudes toward own aging

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allan

L. J.

Johnson

(2009). Undergraduate attitudes toward the elderly: The role of knowledge, contact, and aging anxiety. Educational Gerontology, 35(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601270802299780

Allan

L. J.

Johnson

J. A.

Emerson

S. D.

(2014). The role of individual difference variables in ageism. Personality and Individual Differences, 59, 32–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.10.027

Allport

G. W.

(1954). The nature of prejudice. Perseus Books.

Baron

R. M.

Kenny

D. A.

(1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173

Bayl-Smith

P. H.

Griffin

(2014). Age discrimination in the workplace: Identifying as a late career worker and its relationship with engagement and intended retirement age. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 44, 588–599. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12251

Bodner

Shrira

Bergman

Y. S.

Cohen-Fridel

Grossman

E. S.

(2015). The interaction between aging and death anxieties predicts ageism. Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 15–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.05.022

Boswell

S. S.

(2012). Predicting trainee ageism using knowledge, anxiety, compassion, and contact with older adults. Educational Gerontology, 38, 733–741. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2012.695997

Breytspraak

Badura

(2015). Facts on Aging Quiz [revised; based on Palmore (1977; 1981)]. http://info.umkc.edu/aging/quiz/

Burnes

Sheppard

Henderson

C. R.

Wassel

Cope

Barber

Pillemer

(2019). Interventions to reduce ageism against older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Public Health, 109(8), e1–e9. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305123

10.

Butler

R. N.

(1969). Age-ism: Another form of bigotry. The Gerontologist, 9, 243–246. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/9.4_Part_1.243

11.

Butler

R. N.

(2005). Ageism: Looking back over my shoulder. Generations, 29, 84–86.

12.

Caspi

(1984). Contact hypothesis and inter-age attitudes: A field study of cross-age contact. Social Psychology Quarterly, 47(1), 74–80. https://doi.org/10.2307/3033890

13.

Cuddy

A. C.

Norton

M. I.

Fiske

S. T.

(2005). This old stereotype: The pervasiveness and persistence of the elderly stereotype. Journal of Social Issues, 61(2), 267–285. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2005.00405.x

14.

Depaola

S. J.

Griffin

Young

J. R.

Neimeyer

R. A.

(2003). Death anxiety and attitudes toward the elderly among older adults: The role of gender and ethnicity. Death Studies, 27(4), 335–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481180302904

15.

Diener

Emmons

R. A.

Larsen

R. J.

Griffin

(1985). The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71–75. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13

16.

Drury

Hutchison

Abrams

(2016). Direct and extended intergenerational contact and young people’s attitudes towards older adults. British Journal of Social Psychology, 55(3), 522–543. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12146

17.

Fraboni

Saltstone

Hughes

(1990). The Fraboni Scale of Ageism (FSA): An attempt at a more precise measure of ageism. Canadian Journal on Aging, 9, 56–66. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0714980800016093

18.

Funderburk

Damron-Rodriguez

Storms

L. L.

Solomon

D. H.

(2006). Endurance of undergraduate attitudes toward older adults. Educational Gerontology, 32, 447–462. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601270600685651

19.

Harris

L. A.

Dollinger

(2001). Participation in a course on aging: Knowledge, attitudes, and anxiety about aging in oneself and others. Educational Gerontology, 27(8), 657–667. https://doi.org/10.1080/036012701317117893

20.

Hassell

B. L.

Perrewé

P. L.

(1993). An examination of the relationship between older workers’ perceptions of age discrimination and employee psychological states. Journal of Managerial Issues, 5, 109–120.

21.

Hess

T. M.

Hinson

J. T.

Statham

J. A.

(2004). Explicit and implicit stereotype activation effects on memory: Do age and awareness moderate the impact of priming? Psychology and Aging, 19(3), 495–505. https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.19.3.495

22.

Hummert

M. L.

(1990). Multiple stereotypes of elderly and young adults: A comparison of structure and evaluations. Psychology and Aging, 5, 182–193. https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.5.2.182

23.

Jose

P. E.

(2013). ModGraph-I: A programme to compute cell means for the graphical display of moderational analyses: The internet version, version 3.0. Victoria University of Wellington.

24.

Kalavar

J. M.

(2001). Examining ageism: do male and female college students differ? Educational Gerontology, 27, 507–513.

25.

Lasher

K. P.

Faulkender

P. J.

(1993). Measurement of aging anxiety: Development of the Anxiety about Aging Scale. The International Journal of Aging & Human Development, 37(4), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.2190/1U69-9AU2-V6LH-9Y1L

26.

Lawton

M. P.

(1975). The Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale: A revision. Journal of Gerontology, 30(1), 85–89. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronj/30.1.85

27.

Levy

B. R.

(2009). Stereotype embodiment: A psychosocial approach to aging. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 332–336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14678721.2009.01662.x

28.

Levy

B. R.

Slade

M. D.

Kunkel

S. R.

Kasl

S. V.

(2002). Longevity increased by positive self-perceptions of aging. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.83.2.261

29.

Macdonald

J. L.

Levy

S. R.

(2016). Ageism in the workplace: The role of psychosocial factors in predicting job satisfaction, commitment, and engagement. Journal of Social Issues, 72(1), 169–190. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12161

30.

Martens

Greenberg

Schimel

Landau

M. J.

(2004). Ageism and death: Effects of mortality salience and perceived similarity to elders on reactions to elderly people. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1524–1536. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167204271185

31.

Moor

Zimprich

Schmitt

Kliegel

(2006). Personality, aging self-perceptions, and subjective health: A mediation model. The International Journal of Aging & Human Development, 63, 241–257. https://doi.org/10.2190/akry-um4k-pb1v-pbhf

32.

O’Conner

M. L.

McFadden

S. H.

(2012). A terror management perspective on young adults’ ageism and attitudes toward dementia. Educational Gerontology, 38, 627–643. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2011.595335

33.

Palmore

E. B.

(1999). Ageism: Negative and positive (2nd ed.). Springer.

34.

Palmore

E. B.

(2004). Research note: Ageism in Canada and the United States. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 19, 41–46. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JCCG.0000015098.62691.ab

35.

Pyszczynski

Greenberg

Solomon

Ardnt

Schimel

(2004). Why do people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 435–468. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.130.3.435

36.

Radloff

L. S.

(1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1(3), 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1177/014662167700100306

37.

Robertson

D. A.

King-Kallimanis

B. L.

Kenny

R. A.

(2016). Negative perceptions of aging predict longitudinal decline in cognitive function. Psychology and Aging, 31(1), 71–81. https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000061

38.

Rupp

D. E.

Vondanovich

S. J.

Credé

(2005). The multidimensional nature of ageism: Construct validity and group differences. The Journal of Social Psychology, 145, 335–362. https://doi.org/10.3200/SOCP.145.3.335-362

39.

Sabik

N. J.

(2015). Ageism and body esteem: Associations with psychological well-being among late middle-aged African American and European American women. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 70(2), 191–201. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbt080

40.

Schwartz

L. K.

Simmons

J. P.

(2001). Contact quality and attitudes toward the elderly. Educational Gerontology, 27, 127–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601270151075525

41.

Templer

D. I.

Awadalla

Al-Fayez

Frazee

Bassman

Connelly

H. J.

. . . Abdel-Khalek

A. M.

(2006). Construction of a Death Anxiety Scale-Extended. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 53(3), 209–226. https://doi.org/10.2190/BQFP-9ULN-NULY-4JDR

42.

Watson

Clark

L. A.

Tellegen

(1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063–1070. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.15 MB