IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i8p1329-d222470.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ageism in an Aging Society: The Role of Knowledge, Anxiety about Aging, and Stereotypes in Young People and Adults

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Rosa Donizzetti

    (Department of Humanities, University of Naples Federico II, 80133 Napoli NA, Italy)

Abstract

The progressive aging of society, caused by profound demographic changes, brings with it the necessity of confronting the subject of biases against the elderly. Ageism, in fact, can influence society’s attitudes regarding this population, in addition to impacting the self-perception of elderly people. This, in turn, has consequences for positive outcomes during the aging process. The current research aims to investigate the simultaneous relationships between knowledge, age, anxiety about aging, and stereotypes toward the elderly, as well as their predictive roles with respect to ageism. A self-report questionnaire was administered to 886 participants, with an average age of 35.8 years (Standard Deviation—SD = 14.2), predominantly female (64.8%). Descriptive and correlational analyses were performed, along with structural equation modeling. Based on the analyses conducted, anxiety about aging and knowledge are antecedents for stereotypes, which in turn, together with the other variables, influence ageism. Increased education about the aging process could help reduce anxiety and stereotypes against the aging among those who are most responsible for prejudice against the elderly. Knowledge of the antecedents of prejudice toward the elderly is fundamental to promoting positive attitudes toward them.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Rosa Donizzetti, 2019. "Ageism in an Aging Society: The Role of Knowledge, Anxiety about Aging, and Stereotypes in Young People and Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-11, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:8:p:1329-:d:222470
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/8/1329/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/8/1329/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nardi Steverink & Gerben J. Westerhof & Christina Bode & Freya Dittmann-Kohli, 2001. "The Personal Experience of Aging, Individual Resources, and Subjective Well-Being," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 56(6), pages 364-373.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anna Rosa Donizzetti & Martine Lagacé, 2022. "COVID-19 and the Elderly’s Mental Illness: The Role of Risk Perception, Social Isolation, Loneliness and Ageism," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-15, April.
    2. Jiyeon Ha & Juah Kim, 2021. "Ageism and the Factors Affecting Ageism among Korean Nursing Students: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-10, February.
    3. Yongseop Kim & Junhyoung Kim & Jung-Min Lee & Dong-Chul Seo & Hyun Chul Jung, 2022. "Intergenerational Taekwondo Program: A Narrative Review and Practical Intervention Proposal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-17, April.
    4. Peggy Palsgaard & Christian A. Maino Vieytes & Natasha Peterson & Sarah L. Francis & Lillie Monroe-Lord & Nadine R. Sahyoun & Melissa Ventura-Marra & Lee Weidauer & Furong Xu & Anna E. Arthur, 2022. "Healthcare Professionals’ Views and Perspectives towards Aging," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-13, November.
    5. Ulrike Bechtold & Natalie Stauder & Martin Fieder, 2024. "Attitudes towards Technology: Insights on Rarely Discussed Influences on Older Adults’ Willingness to Adopt Active Assisted Living (AAL)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(5), pages 1-15, May.
    6. Carolina Fernández-Jiménez & Joaquín F. Álvarez-Hernández & Darío Salguero-García & José M. Aguilar-Parra & Rubén Trigueros, 2020. "Validation of the Lasher and Faulkender Anxiety about Aging Scale (AAS) for the Spanish Context," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-10, June.
    7. Lotte P. Brinkhof & Sanne de Wit & Jaap M. J. Murre & Harm J. Krugers & K. Richard Ridderinkhof, 2022. "The Subjective Experience of Ageism: The Perceived Ageism Questionnaire (PAQ)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-21, July.
    8. Marta Podhorecka & Anna Pyszora & Agnieszka Woźniewicz & Jakub Husejko & Kornelia Kędziora-Kornatowska, 2022. "Empathy as a Factor Conditioning Attitudes towards the Elderly among Physiotherapists—Results from Poland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-11, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alaina N. English & Jennifer A. Bellingtier & Shevaun D. Neupert, 2019. "It’s “the Joneses”: the influence of objective and subjective socioeconomic status on subjective perceptions of aging," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 121-128, March.
    2. Marta Sousa-Ribeiro & Claudia Bernhard-Oettel & Magnus Sverke & Hugo Westerlund, 2021. "Health- and Age-Related Workplace Factors as Predictors of Preferred, Expected, and Actual Retirement Timing: Findings from a Swedish Cohort Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-25, March.
    3. Verena Klusmann & Nanna Notthoff & Ann-Kristin Beyer & Anne Blawert & Martina Gabrian, 2020. "The assessment of views on ageing: a review of self-report measures and innovative extensions," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 403-433, December.
    4. S. Quadros-Wander & J. McGillivray & J. Broadbent, 2014. "The influence of perceived control on subjective wellbeing in later life," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(3), pages 999-1010, February.
    5. Sarah Asebedo & Patrick Payne, 2019. "Market Volatility and Financial Satisfaction: The Role of Financial Self-Efficacy," Journal of Behavioral Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 42-52, January.
    6. Allyson Brothers & Martina Miche & Hans-Werner Wahl & Manfred Diehl, 2017. "Examination of Associations Among Three Distinct Subjective Aging Constructs and Their Relevance for Predicting Developmental Correlates," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 72(4), pages 547-560.
    7. Bibiana M Armenta & Katherine Stroebe & Susanne Scheibe & Tom Postmes & Nico W Van Yperen, 2017. "Feeling younger and identifying with older adults: Testing two routes to maintaining well-being in the face of age discrimination," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(11), pages 1-21, November.
    8. Susanne Wurm & Maja Wiest & Julia K. Wolff & Ann-Kristin Beyer & Svenja M. Spuling, 2020. "Changes in views on aging in later adulthood: the role of cardiovascular events," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 457-467, December.
    9. A. E. Burton & S. E. Dean & W. Demeyin & J. Reeves, 2021. "Questionnaire measures of self-directed ageing stereotype in older adults: a systematic review of measurement properties," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 117-144, March.
    10. Serena Sabatini & Obioha C. Ukoumunne & Allyson Brothers & Manfred Diehl & Hans-Werner Wahl & Clive Ballard & Rachel Collins & Anne Corbett & Helen Brooker & Linda Clare, 2022. "Differences in awareness of positive and negative age-related changes accounting for variability in health outcomes," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1087-1097, December.
    11. Munjae Lee & Kichan Yoon, 2020. "Effects of the Health Promotion Programs on Happiness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-14, January.
    12. Qingxiu Dang & Baoshan Zhang, 2022. "Linkage from Self-Sacrifice to Hope Through the Intervening Roles of Perceived Family Support and Attitudes to Aging in Chinese Older Adults," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 2405-2426, August.
    13. Peggy Voss & Julia K. Wolff & Klaus Rothermund, 2017. "Relations between views on ageing and perceived age discrimination: a domain-specific perspective," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 5-15, March.
    14. Anna E. Kornadt & Isabelle Albert & Martine Hoffmann & Elke Murdock & Josepha Nell, 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, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 173-184, June.
    15. Julia Zelikova, 2013. "Successful aging: a cross-national study of subjective well-being later in life," HSE Working papers WP BRP 21/SOC/2013, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    16. Maria-Eugenia Prieto-Flores & Antonio Moreno-Jiménez & Gloria Fernandez-Mayoralas & Fermina Rojo-Perez & Maria Forjaz, 2012. "The Relative Contribution of Health Status and Quality of Life Domains in Subjective Health in Old Age," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 106(1), pages 27-39, March.
    17. Hanna Köttl & Ella Cohn-Schwartz & Liat Ayalon & Deborah S Carr, 2021. "Self-Perceptions of Aging and Everyday ICT Engagement: A Test of Reciprocal Associations [Risk profiles for mild cognitive impairment and progression to dementia are gender specific]," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 76(9), pages 1913-1922.
    18. Zhen Zhang & Jianxin Zhang, 2015. "Social Participation and Subjective Well-Being Among Retirees in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 143-160, August.
    19. Carmen Requena & George W. Rebok, 2019. "Evaluating Successful Aging in Older People Who Participated in Computerized or Paper-and-Pencil Memory Training: The Memoria Mejor Program," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-15, January.
    20. Paula Naumanen, 2006. "The health promotion model as assessed by ageing workers," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(2), pages 219-226, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:8:p:1329-:d:222470. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.