Ageism, or age-based negative stereotypes, prejudice, and/or discriminatory behaviors toward older adults, has been linked with various detrimental physical and psychological consequences. The current study examined the relevance of ageist attitudes to financial exploitation vulnerability (FEV) among older adults and investigated whether feeling older than one’s chronological age (i.e., older subjective age) moderated the ageist attitudes-FEV association. 230 participants (M age = 72.08, SD = 5.74) filled out scales assessing ageist attitudes, subjective age, and provided relevant sociodemographic information. High levels of ageist attitudes and an older subjective age were associated with increased FEV. Moreover, the ageist attitudes-FEV association was significantly stronger among participants reporting an older subjective age. The results highlight the importance of taking into account ageism and subjective age in order to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms which render older adults vulnerable to financial exploitation. Practical and empirical implications are discussed.
AciernoR.HernandezM. A.AmstadterA. B.ResnickH. S.SteveK.MuzzyW.KilpatrickD. G. (2010). Prevalence and correlates of emotional, physical, sexual, and financial abuse and potential neglect in the United States: The National Elder Mistreatment Study. American Journal of Public Health, 100(2), 292–297. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2009.163089
2.
AyalonL. (2022). Ageism towards oneself vs. ageism towards others in the context of views of aging. In ShriraA.PalgiY.DiehlM. (Eds.), Subjective views of aging (pp. 41–58). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11073-3_3
3.
AyalonL.DolbergP.MikulionienėS.Perek-BiałasJ.RapolienėG.StypinskaJ.WillińskaM.de la Fuente-NúñezV. (2019). A systematic review of existing ageism scales. Ageing Research Reviews, 54, 100919. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2019.100919
4.
AyalonL.Tesch-RömerC. (2018). Introduction to the section: Ageism—concept and origins. In AyalonL.Tesch-RömerC. (Eds.), Contemporary perspectives on ageism (pp. 1–10). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73820-8_1
5.
BarakB.SchiffmanL. G. (1981). Cognitive age: A nonchronological age variable. In ACR North American advances, volume 8, 602–606.
6.
BergmanY. S.PalgiY. (2021). Ageism, personal and others’ perceptions of age awareness, and their interactive effect on subjective accelerated aging. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 40(12), 1876–1880. https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464820967209
7.
BodnerE.PalgiY.WymanM. F. (2018). Ageism in mental health assessment and treatment of older adults. In AyalonL.Tesch-RömerC. (Eds.), Contemporary perspectives on ageism (pp. 241–262). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73820-8_15
8.
BodnerE.ShriraA.HoffmanY.BergmanY. S. (2021). Day-to-day variability in subjective age and ageist attitudes and their association with depressive symptoms. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 76(5), 836–844. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaa125
ChangE.-S.KannothS.LevyS.WangS.-Y.LeeJ. E.LevyB. R. (2020). Global reach of ageism on older persons’ health: A systematic review. Plos One, 15(1), Article e0220857. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220857
11.
FarrellL.FryT. R.RisseL. (2016). The significance of financial self-efficacy in explaining women’s personal finance behaviour. Journal of Economic Psychology, 54, 85–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2015.07.001
12.
GviliR. L.BodnerE. (2021). Ageist attitudes are associated with will-to-live and moderated by age, medical conditions and attitudes toward aging. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(13), 6736–6749. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18136736
13.
HayesA. F. (2018). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford publications.
14.
HuR. X.LuoM.ZhangA.LiL. W. (2021). Associations of ageism and health: A systematic review of quantitative observational studies. Research on Aging, 43(7–8), 311–322. https://doi.org/10.1177/0164027520980130
15.
KimH. (2015). The mechanism of ageism: The relationship between perceived ageism and depressive symptoms in later life. The Florida State University.
16.
KimS. H. (2009). Older people’s expectations regarding ageing, health‐promoting behaviour and health status. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(1), 84–91. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2008.04841.x
17.
KornadtA. E.AlbertI.HoffmannM.MurdockE.NellJ. (2021). Ageism and older people’s health and well-being during the covid-19-pandemic: The moderating role of subjective aging. European Journal of Ageing, 18(2), 173–184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-021-00624-8
LevyB. R.SladeM. D.KaslS. V. (2002). Longitudinal benefit of positive self-perceptions of aging on functional health. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 57(5), P409–P417. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/57.5.P409
20.
LichtenbergP. A.CampbellR.HallL.GrossE. Z. (2020). Context matters: Financial, psychological, and relationship insecurity around personal finance is associated with financial exploitation. The Gerontologist, 60(6), 1040–1049. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnaa020
21.
NorthM. S.FiskeS. T. (2013). A prescriptive intergenerational-tension ageism scale: Succession, identity, and consumption (SIC). Psychological Assessment, 25(3), 706–713. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032367
22.
PhelanA.AyalonL. (2020). The intersection of ageism and elder abuse. In PhelanA. (Ed.), Advances in elder abuse research (pp. 11–22). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25093-5_2
23.
QamarM. A. J.KhemtaM. A. N.JamilH. (2016). How knowledge and financial self-efficacy moderate the relationship between money attitudes and personal financial management behavior. European Online Journal of Natural and Social Sciences, 5(2), 296–308.
24.
ShriraA.PalgiY.Ben-EzraM.SpalterT.KavéG.ShmotkinD. (2011). For better and for worse: The relationship between future expectations and functioning in the second half of life. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 66(2), 195–203. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbq103
25.
ShriraA.PalgiY.DiehlM. (2022). Advancing the field of subjective views of aging: An overview of recent achievements. In ShriraA.PalgiY.DiehlM. (Eds.), Subjective views of aging (pp. 11–37). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11073-3_3
26.
SprengR. N.KarlawishJ.MarsonD. C. (2016). Cognitive, social, and neural determinants of diminished decision-making and financial exploitation risk in aging and dementia: A review and new model. Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, 28(4–5), 320–344. https://doi.org/10.1080/08946566.2016.1237918
27.
SteeleC. M.AronsonJ. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(5), 797–811. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.5.797
28.
WeissD.LangF. R. (2012). “They” are old but “I” feel younger: Age-group dissociation as a self-protective strategy in old age. Psychology and Aging, 27(1), 153–163. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024887
29.
WeissbergerG.BergmanY.S. (2022). The association between subjective age and financial exploitation vulnerability among older adults: The moderating role of social support. Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, 34(4), 314–324. https://doi.org/10.1080/08946566.2022.2108181
30.
WeissbergerG. H.GoodmanM. C.MosquedaL.SchoenJ.NguyenA. L.WilberK. H.GassoumisZ. D.NguyenC. P.HanS. D. (2019). Elder abuse characteristics based on calls to the national center on elder abuse resource line. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 39(10), 1078–1087. https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464819865685
31.
WurmS.DiehlM.KornadtA. E.WesterhofG. J.WahlH. W. (2017). How do views on aging affect health outcomes in adulthood and late life? Explanations for an established connection. Developmental Review, 46, 27–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2017.08.002
32.
YeomH. E. (2014). Association among ageing‐related stereotypic beliefs, self‐efficacy and health‐promoting behaviors in elderly Korean adults. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 23(9–10), 1365–1373. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12419
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.
