The Subjective Experience of Ageism: The Perceived Ageism Questionnaire (PAQ)

Older adults, perceived ageism, civic participation and mental health: a qualitative study

OBJECTIVES

This study has three objectives: A) To investigate the relationship of ageism on older adults' civic activities; B) To analyze the influence of ageism on mental health; and C) To explore the impact of civic participation on older adults' mental health.

METHOD

This qualitative study included 782 older people from three different nationalities (Portuguese, Brazilian, and English) ranging in age from 65 to 88. All the interviews went through the process of content analysis.

RESULTS

For the first objective, the findings encompass one high-level theme (Social and individual incompetence), which included social rejection (86%), reduced competence (84%), expectations of failure (83%), and not being able to contribute (77%). For the second objective, findings indicated two overarching categories: Perceived inability, including frustration and impotence (89%), incompetence (77%) and irrelevance (71%); and Perceived distress, including anger (81%), feelings of anxiety (68%); and emotional bursts (63%). For the third objective, the following two high-level themes emerged: Ego-oriented resources, which comprised the development of a sense of purpose (81%), learning cognitive skills (71%), and (A3) practising sense of agency (67%); and Social-oriented resources, encompassing feeling socially integrated (80%); and expressing emotionally (54%). Findings indicated that the most verbalized themes for the three objectives were the same across the three nationalities.

CONCLUSIONS

Ageism made it difficult for people to participate in civic life, which has been linked to better mental health. These findings emphasize the need to encourage inclusive civic involvement to improve older individuals' mental health.

Are interactive and tailored data visualizations effective in promoting flu vaccination among the elderly? Evidence from a randomized experiment

OBJECTIVE

Although interactive data visualizations are increasingly popular for health communication, it remains to be seen what design features improve psychological and behavioral targets. This study experimentally tested how interactivity and descriptive titles may influence perceived susceptibility to the flu, intention to vaccinate, and information recall, particularly among older adults.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We created data visualization dashboards on flu vaccinations, tested in a 2 (explanatory text vs none) × 3 (interactive + tailored, static + tailored, static + nontailored) + questionnaire-only control randomized between-participant online experiment (N   = 1378).

RESULTS

The flu dashboards significantly increased perceived susceptibility to the flu compared to the control: static+nontailored dashboard, b = 0.14, P = .049; static-tailored, b = 0.16, P = .028; and interactive+tailored, b = 0.15, P = .039. Interactive dashboards potentially decreased recall particularly among the elderly (moderation by age: b = -0.03, P = .073). The benefits of descriptive text on recall were larger among the elderly (interaction effects: b = 0.03, P = .025).

DISCUSSION

Interactive dashboards with complex statistics and limited textual information are widely used in health and public health but may be suboptimal for older individuals. We experimentally showed that adding explanatory text on visualizations can increase information recall particularly for older populations.

CONCLUSION

We did not find evidence to support the effectiveness of interactivity in data visualizations on flu vaccination intentions or on information recall. Future research should examine what types of explanatory text can best support improved health outcomes and intentions in other contexts. Practitioners should consider whether interactivity is optimal in data visualization dashboards for their populations.

Mitigating the Harmful Impact of Ageism among Older Individuals: The Buffering Role of Resilience Factors

Frequent exposure to ageism has significant repercussions on the quality of life and mental well-being/health of older adults. Resilience may play a crucial role in mitigating these effects. The current study aimed to investigate the potential buffering roles of two types of coping variables-behavioral coping and a positive appraisal style-in older adults (N = 2000, aged 55-93). Confirming previous findings, higher levels of perceived negative ageism (PNA) were associated with diminished quality of life and mental well-being, increased depression and loneliness. However, individuals that tend to employ behavioral coping strategies when confronted with challenging/stressful situations showed a weaker relationship between PNA and quality of life, mental well-being, and depression. Embracing a positive appraisal style attenuated the negative impact of PNA on feelings of depression and loneliness. Interestingly, younger older adults appeared to benefit the most from these resilience factors. Despite considerable inter-individual variability, encouraging the utilization of behavioral coping strategies and nurturing a positive appraisal style could serve as effective approaches to mitigate the detrimental effects of PNA.

Changes in perceived ageism during the COVID-19 pandemic: impact on quality of life and mental well-being among Dutch adults aged 55 and older

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic brought ageism to the forefront of public discourse. Negative ageism incurs more negative self-perceptions of aging, which affects physical and mental functioning. Whether negative ageism as perceived and experienced by older adults has worsened as the pandemic lingered, and how such changes impact quality of life (QoL) and mental well-being (MWB), remain urgent questions.Method: In a sample of adults aged 55 or older (n = 500), we aimed to address this by administering the Perceived Ageism Questionnaire twice during the pandemic (T1: between October 2020 and May 2021; T2: on average 45 wk after T1).Results: Higher levels of perceived negative ageism were associated with lower QoL and MWB, at least partially through its unfavorable effects on self-perceptions of aging, even after controlling for ageism experiences in the preceding year (at T2, corrected for T1). Furthermore, we found that perceived negative ageism increased from T1 to T2, which had negative implications for QoL/MWB. Opposite effects were found for perceived positive ageism, although less consistently.Conclusion: These patterns reveal that ageism as perceived and experienced by adults of 55 or older became stronger and more negative throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which had detrimental implications for individuals' QoL and MWB. These disconcerting findings emphasize the importance of combatting negative ageism in our society.

Development of the item pool for the 'WHO-ageism scale': conceptualisation, item generation and content validity assessment

OBJECTIVES

ageism harms individuals' health and wellbeing and can be costly to societies. Reliable and valid measures that can quantify ageism are critical for achieving accurate data on its global prevalence, determinants and impacts, and to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to reduce it. Ageism scales exist; however, none have been demonstrated to validly measure ageism in a manner consistent with consensus definitions of the concept (i.e. as manifested in all of stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination), whilst also quantifying ageism against all groups, from a target and perpetrator perspective, and across diverse country settings. Our objective was to develop an item pool to meet this need.

METHODS

we completed the conceptualisation, item generation and content validity assessment phases of a new World Health Organisation (WHO) WHO-ageism item pool that aims to measure the multi-dimensional nature of ageism. These phases drew on a review of available evidence, an experts' workshop and structured content validity reviews conducted by experts in scale development and ageism drawn from every world region defined by WHO.

RESULTS

our resulting item pool is designed to provide a multi-dimensional measure of ageism against all ages measured from both a perpetration and experienced perspective and that can produce valid and reliable scores within diverse country contexts and comparable scores across these contexts.

CONCLUSIONS

our item pool is the first major step in providing a global and comprehensive measure of ageism. Future phases of research will refine the item pool and establish the statistical psychometric properties of the final tool.

The cognitive tenacity of self-directed ageism

Ageism refers to prejudice or discrimination based on a person's age. When ageism is directed at older people, it is unique in two ways: it is socially condoned in a manner that other types of prejudice are not, and the animus is eventually self-directed. Of central interest here is why ageism becomes self-directed in late adulthood, despite its potentially harmful personal costs. We present a cognitive model in which negative ageist beliefs become increasingly accessible and difficult to eliminate owing to broader developmental shifts in mentation. Given that these effects are contingent on our social environment, systemic changes in societal conceptions of age and aging are needed if we are to reduce vulnerability to self-directed ageism.

"I'm Too Old for That": The Role of Ageism and Sexual Dysfunctional Beliefs in Sexual Health in a Sample of Heterosexual and LGB Older Adults: A Pilot Study

The role of ageism (i.e., discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of their age), in particular toward the sexuality of the elderly, remains, to date, an overlooked issue. A few studies have suggested that ageistic stereotypes can negatively affect older adults' sexual health. No data are available, in particular, about differences among heterosexual and LGB (lesbian, gay, and bisexual) populations. The present study aimed to investigate differences in perceived ageism and related dysfunctional beliefs in a sample of heterosexual (n = 104) and LGB (n = 103) older adults (aged 55 or older; mean age 66.5) and their impact on sexual health and satisfaction. LGB individuals reported higher rates of masturbation and sexual intercourse and an increased quality of sexual activity as compared to heterosexuals. In addition, no differences between the groups emerged as regards perceived ageism and dysfunctional beliefs toward ageing. In conclusion, LGB individuals perceived more ageism toward sexuality than their counterparts; however, heterosexuals were more likely to have dysfunctional beliefs toward sexuality in ageing. The study findings highlight the significance of examining sexual orientation to understand experiences of sexuality in ageing of the growing older population. Renewed socio-educational efforts based on these data are clearly needed.