Discrimination and Subsequent Mental Health, Substance Use, and Well-being in Young Adults.

OBJECTIVES: Discrimination has been shown to have profound negative effects on mental and behavioral health and may influence these outcomes early in adulthood. We aimed to examine short-term, long-term, and cumulative associations between different types of interpersonal discrimination (eg, racism, sexism, ageism, and physical appearance discrimination) and mental health, substance use, and well-being for young adults in a longitudinal nationally representative US sample. METHODS: We used data from 6 waves of the Transition to Adulthood Supplement (2007-2017, 1834 participants) of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Outcome variables included self-reported health, drug use, binge drinking, mental illness diagnosis, Languishing and Flourishing score, and Kessler Psychological Distress Scale score. We used logistic regression with cluster-robust variance estimation to test cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between discrimination frequency (overall, cumulative, and by different reason) and outcomes, controlling for sociodemographics. RESULTS: Increased discrimination frequency was associated with higher prevalence of languishing (relative risk [RR] 1.34 [95% CI 1.2-1.4]), psychological distress (RR 2.03 [95% CI 1.7-2.4]), mental illness diagnosis (RR 1.26 [95% CI 1.1-1.4]), drug use (RR 1.24 [95% CI 1.2-1.3]), and poor self-reported health (RR 1.26 [95% CI 1.1-1.4]) in the same wave. Associations persisted 2 to 6 years after exposure to discrimination. Similar associations were found with cumulative high-frequency discrimination and with each discrimination subcategory in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. CONCLUSIONS: In this nationally representative longitudinal sample, current and past discrimination had pervasive adverse associations with mental health, substance use, and well-being in young adults.

Culture Linked to Increasing Ageism During COVID-19: Evidence From a 10-Billion-Word Corpus Across 20 Countries.

OBJECTIVES: Older adults experience higher risks of getting severely ill from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), resulting in widespread narratives of frailty and vulnerability. We test: (a) whether global aging narratives have become more negative from before to during the pandemic (October 2019 to May 2020) across 20 countries; (b) model pandemic (incidence and mortality), and cultural factors associated with the trajectory of aging narratives. METHODS: We leveraged a 10-billion-word online-media corpus, consisting of 28 million newspaper and magazine articles across 20 countries, to identify nine common synonyms of "older adults" and compiled their most frequently used descriptors (collocates) from October 2019 to May 2020-culminating in 11,504 collocates that were rated to create a Cumulative Aging Narrative Score per month. Widely used cultural dimension scores were taken from Hofstede, and pandemic variables, from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker. RESULTS: Aging narratives became more negative as the pandemic worsened across 20 countries. Globally, scores were trending neutral from October 2019 to February 2020, and plummeted in March 2020, reflecting COVID-19's severity. Prepandemic (October 2019), the United Kingdom evidenced the most negative aging narratives; peak pandemic (May 2020), South Africa took on the dubious honor. Across the 8-month period, the Philippines experienced the steepest trend toward negativity in aging narratives. Ageism, during the pandemic, was, ironically, not predicted by COVID-19's incidence and mortality rates, but by cultural variables: Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-term Orientation. DISCUSSION: The strategy to reverse this trajectory lay in the same phenomenon that promoted it: a sustained global campaign-though, it should be culturally nuanced and customized to a country's context.

Ageism Linked to Culture, Not Demographics: Evidence From an 8-Billion-Word Corpus Across 20 Countries.

OBJECTIVES: Ageism has increased over 200 years and costs the U.S. health care system $63 billion a year. While scholars agree on the consequences of ageism, there are disagreements on whether it is related to the demographics of aging, or society's cultural values. We test both hypotheses across 20 countries. METHOD: To circumvent the sampling limitations of survey studies, we used an 8-billion-word corpus, identified 3 synonyms with the highest prevalence-aged, elderly, old people-and compiled the top 300 words (collocates) that were used most frequently with these synonyms for each of the 20 countries. The resulting 6,000 collocates were rated on an ageism scale by 2 raters to create an ageism score per country. Cultural dimension scores-Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-term Orientation-were taken from Hofstede, and demographics-size and speed of population aging-came from the World Development Indicators. RESULTS: Of the 20 countries, UK topped the ageism table, while Sri Lanka had the lowest ageism score. Multiple regression models showed that higher levels of masculinity and long-term orientation are associated with ageism, controlling for other cultural dimensions, demographics (size and speed of aging), and economics (GDP-per-capita). DISCUSSION: Our findings blunt the deterministic nature of ageism at the societal level. Demographics is only one side of the ageism coin, and the cultural side is equally, if not more important. This study lays the groundwork to tackle societal ageism-one of our generation's most pernicious threats.

Images of Older Adults among University Students: a Comparison between Japan and Korea.

This study investigated the differences between Japanese and Korean college students' images of the elderly. Japan is the most aged society worldwide, while South Korea has the highest rate of aging. Japan has a more advanced elderly welfare system than Korea. The datasets included responses from 320 Japanese students (collected in 2009) and 384 Korean students (collected in 2011). A semantic difference scale of 50 pairs of items was adopted. The chi-square test and logistic regression analyses were utilized. The five most prevalent images among Korean students were generally negative, whereas the most common images among Japanese participants were mostly neutral or positive. A greater degree of talking/good memories, activities with older adults, and experience of gerontological education showed positive relationships to favorable images, whereas living with grandparents and visiting facilities for the elderly did not yield the same results. It seems that greater interaction with grandparents and other senior citizens, as well as more extensive gerontology education, improved the images of the elderly in both countries, whereas merely visiting facilities for older adults seemed insufficient. The results also suggest that living with grandparents can lead to rather negative images of older adults.

Confucian Values as a Buffer Against Age-Based Stereotype Threat for Chinese Older Adults.

OBJECTIVES: Research has shown that stereotype threat can impair older adults' memory in Western cultures. We tested whether this also occurs for older adults from the East Asian Chinese culture. We also tested whether an intervention that highlighted Confucian principles would protect Chinese older adults from stereotype threat's detrimental effects. METHOD: Culturally-Chinese older adults residing in the United States completed a memory test either under age-based stereotype threat about cognitive decline or not. Prior to this, some participants were also reminded of Confucian traditions of filial piety and were assured these values had been transmitted to the younger generation. RESULTS: Stereotype threat impaired Chinese older adults' memory performance. However, our intervention was effective in eliminating this deficit. When the Chinese participants were reminded of the Confucian principle of filial piety they did not exhibit stereotype threat effects. DISCUSSION: Confirming that younger adults have an obligation to respect their elders can eliminate the social-evaluative pressure of stereotype threat for Chinese older adults. These findings are noteworthy since population aging is happening at an unprecedented pace in East Asia. Although our results suggest that stereotype threat can adversely affect older adults' cognitive performance in these societies, we also identify a culturally-based intervention to alleviate this impairment.

Attitudes toward aging and older adults in Arab culture : A literature review.

BACKGROUND: As population ageing takes place around the world, research on attitudes toward ageing and older people increases in relevance. With migration of people from the Arab world into countries with high percentages of older adults, attitudes toward ageing and older adults held in Arab culture are of particular interest. OBJECTIVE: The article provides a review of the empirical literature on attitudes toward ageing and older adults held in the Arab world and discusses the findings on the basis of the general literature on age stereotypes, attitudes toward ageing, and ageism as well as their link to culture. METHOD: A literature search was performed to find empirical studies on attitudes toward ageing and older adults that include Arab samples. Studies published in Arabic or English were included. RESULTS: Studies on attitudes toward ageing with Arab samples are scarce and do not show cohesive patterns of results. None of the hypotheses that have been brought forward to explain cross-cultural differences regarding attitudes toward ageing (i.e., the culture, modernization, and speed of population ageing hypotheses) can fully account for the results. Possible reasons for conflicting results include sociodemographic variables, regional differences, lack of differentiation between meta-perceptions and personal attitudes, heterogeneity of measurement instruments and definitions of "older people" and possible confounds due to the usage of subjective Likert scales in cross-cultural studies. CONCLUSION: Further research on attitudes toward ageing in Arab samples are needed and should consider heterogeneity within Arab culture as well as variables other than culture.

Ageism in informal care network members of older women.

OBJECTIVES: Negative attitudes toward aging are common among formal healthcare providers, but have been infrequently assessed among informal caregivers providing assistance to older adults. The current study sought to identify factors associated with ageism toward older women. DESIGN: Multivariate hierarchical linear regression model. SETTING: Lower-income neighborhoods in an urban setting in the Midwestern USA. PARTICIPANTS: 144 care network members of White and African American women aged ≥ 65 years. MEASUREMENTS: Age Group Evaluation and Description (AGED) Inventory assessed attitudes toward older women; CES-D scale measured depressive symptoms; Intergenerational Affectional Solidarity Scale assessed relationship closeness. RESULTS: In bivariate analyses, African American caregivers endorsed more positive attitudes toward older women. In the multivariate regression model, attitudes toward older women were associated with care recipient health (ß = 0.18, p < 0.05) and relationship closeness with the care recipient (ß = 0.23, p < 0.05). However, these associations were fully mediated by care recipient-specific attitude ratings by the care network member. The association between person-specific attitudes and general attitudes was uniquely directional. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from the present study are consistent with past research suggesting that 'ageism' may, at least in part, derive from bias against perceived poor health. Further, our findings of an association between attitude toward the care recipient and attitudes toward older women in general provide support for cognitive psychology theory which emphasizes the role of personal experience in stereotype formation through the availability heuristic. The current study underlines the necessity for development of interventions to address ageism in informal caregivers.

Age stereotypes, flexible goal adjustment, and well-being among Chinese older adults.

Previous studies have examined the independent roles of positive age stereotypes (PAS) and negative age stereotypes (NAS) in successful aging. This study aimed to examine the joint effect of PAS and NAS on the well-being of Chinese older adults, and to further examine whether this effect was moderated by flexible goal adjustment (FGA). Using a cross-sectional design, 279 Chinese older adults (age range 60‒97 years) completed measures related to age stereotypes, FGA, and well-being. The results showed that PAS interacted with NAS to predict well-being. In addition, the joint effect of PAS and NAS was moderated by FGA. Specially, for older adults with low FGA, NAS weakened the positive association between PAS and well-being; whereas, for older adults with high FGA, NAS could not influence the association between PAS and well-being. Tailored interventions to modify aging perceptions and to enhance coping flexibility competence might be helpful for promoting the well-being of older adults.

Prejudices in Cultural Contexts: Shared Stereotypes (Gender, Age) Versus Variable Stereotypes (Race, Ethnicity, Religion).

Some prejudices share cross-cultural patterns, but others are more variable and culture specific. Those sharing cross-cultural patterns (sexism, ageism) each combine societal status differences and intimate interdependence. For example, in stereotypes of sex and age, lower status groups-women and elders-gain stereotypic warmth (from their cooperative interdependence) but lose stereotypic competence (from their lower status); men and middle-aged adults show the opposite trade-off, stereotypically more competent than warm. Meta-analyses support these widespread ambivalent (mixed) stereotypes for gender and age across cultures. Social class stereotypes often share some similarities (cold but competent rich vs. warm but incompetent poor). These compensatory warmth versus competence stereotypes may function to manage common human dilemmas of interacting across societal and personal positions. However, other stereotypes are more variable and culture specific (ethnicity, race, religion). Case studies of specific race/ethnicities and religions reveal much more cultural variation in their stereotype content, supporting their being responses to particular cultural contexts, apparent accidents of history. To change stereotypes requires understanding their commonalities and differences, their origins and patterns across cultures.

The Aging Semantic Differential in Mandarin Chinese: Measuring Attitudes toward Older Adults in China.

The Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) is the most widely used instrument to measure young people's attitudes towards older adults. This study translated the ASD to Mandarin and examined its psychometric properties. The Mandarin-ASD contains three latent factors (Personality and Mental Health, Societal Participation, and Physical) that have high internal reliability and reasonable discriminate validity. Social work researchers, practitioners and allied professionals may utilize the ASD-Mandarin instrument to measure young people's attitudes towards older adults in China. We issue a call for a universal-ASD that can be applied across different cultural contexts.

Are Asian cultures really less ageist than Western ones? It depends on the questions asked.

Ageism is an increasing concern in ageing populations such as Asia and Europe. A prevalent assumption in psychology is that Eastern cultures may be less prone to ageism because of norms and values that honour and respect elders. Yet, evidence for this culture hypothesis is inconclusive. The current study examines this issue by comparing attitudes towards older people in an Eastern and Western samples of 184 young people from the UK and 249 from Taiwan. Attitudes to old age were measured both as meta-perceptions (the perceived normative context) and personal attitudes in regard to the cognitive, affective and behavioural components of ageism. Consistent with the culture hypothesis, meta-perceptions about competence and admiration were more positive in Taiwan than in the UK, yet other meta-perceptions were more negative pointing to the existence of old age subtypes. Personal attitudes about older people in regard to the affective and behavioural, but not the cognitive component, were more negative in Taiwan than in the UK. Thus, cultural differences in ageism are more nuanced than suggested by previous research. The importance of distinguishing between the normative context and personal attitudes as well as the different components of ageism is highlighted by the present findings.

Ageism in Belgium and Burundi: a comparative analysis.

BACKGROUND: Recent cross-cultural comparisons between Asian and Western cultures have shown that ageism arises more from the lack of availability of social and economic resources for older adults than from the culture itself. We tested this assumption by conducting a survey among people living in a least developed country compared with those living in a developed country. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Twenty-seven Belgians living in Belgium, 29 Burundians living in Belgium, and 32 Burundians living in Burundi were included in this study. Their attitudes toward older adults were assessed using several self-reported measures. RESULTS: Statistical analyses confirmed that older people are more negatively perceived by Burundians living in Burundi than by Burundians and Belgians living in Belgium, whose attitudes did not differ from each other. CONCLUSION: Consistent with our hypothesis, our results suggest that the level of development of a country and more particularly the lack of government spending on older people (pension and health care systems) may contribute to their younger counterparts perceiving them more negatively.

Direct and extended intergenerational contact and young people's attitudes towards older adults.

Research suggests that positive intergenerational contact can improve young people's attitudes towards older adults. However, today's age-segregated society may not provide ample opportunities for positive contact between younger and older adults to occur on a regular basis. In three studies, we investigated whether the positive attitudinal outcomes associated with direct contact might also stem from a more indirect form of intergenerational relationship: extended contact. In Study 1 (N = 70), extended contact was associated with more positive attitudes towards older adults even when controlling for direct intergenerational contact (contact frequency and contact quality). In Study 2 (N = 110), the positive effects of direct and extended contact on young people's age-related attitudes were mediated by reductions in intergroup anxiety and ageing anxiety. The mediational effects of intergroup anxiety were replicated in Study 3 (N = 95) and ingroup norms additionally emerged as a mediator of the positive effects of extended contact on young people's attitudes towards older adults. Discussion focuses on the implications for strategies aimed at tackling ageism.

Modern Attitudes Toward Older Adults in the Aging World: A Cross-Cultural Meta-Analysis.

Prevailing beliefs suggest that Eastern cultures hold older adults in higher esteem than Western cultures do, due to stronger collectivist traditions of filial piety. However, in modern, industrialized societies, the strain presented by dramatic rises in population aging potentially threatens traditional cultural expectations. Addressing these competing hypotheses, a literature search located 37 eligible papers, comprising samples from 23 countries and 21,093 total participants, directly comparing Easterners and Westerners (as classified per U.N. conventions) in their attitudes toward aging and the aged. Contradicting conventional wisdom, a random-effects meta-analysis on these articles found such evaluations to be more negative in the East overall (standardized mean difference = -0.31). High heterogeneity in study comparisons suggested the presence of moderators; indeed, geographical region emerged as a significant moderating factor, with the strongest levels of senior derogation emerging in East Asia (compared with South and Southeast Asia) and non-Anglophone Europe (compared with North American and Anglophone Western regions). At the country level, multiple-moderator meta-regression analysis confirmed recent rises in population aging to significantly predict negative elder attitudes, controlling for industrialization per se over the same time period. Unexpectedly, these analyses also found that cultural individualism significantly predicted relative positivity-suggesting that, for generating elder respect within rapidly aging societies, collectivist traditions may backfire. The findings suggest the importance of demographic challenges in shaping modern attitudes toward elders-presenting considerations for future research in ageism, cross-cultural psychology, and even economic development, as societies across the globe accommodate unprecedented numbers of older citizens.

Group-based differences in anti-aging bias among medical students.

Medical students (MS) may develop ageist attitudes early in their training that may predict their future avoidance of caring for the elderly. This study sought to determine MS' patterns of explicit and implicit anti-aging bias, intent to practice with older people and using the quad model, the role of gender, race, and motivation-based differences. One hundred and three MS completed an online survey that included explicit and implicit measures. Explicit measures revealed a moderately positive perception of older people. Female medical students and those high in internal motivation showed lower anti-aging bias, and both were more likely to intend to practice with older people. Although the implicit measure revealed more negativity toward the elderly than the explicit measures, there were no group differences. However, using the quad model the authors identified gender, race, and motivation-based differences in controlled and automatic processes involved in anti-aging bias.

Ageism and body esteem: associations with psychological well-being among late middle-aged African American and European American women.

OBJECTIVES: Social expectancy theory posits that cultural values shape how individuals perceive and evaluate others, and this influences how others evaluate themselves. Based on this theory, ageism may shape older individuals' self-evaluations. Given the cultural focus on beauty and youth, perceptions of age discrimination may be associated with lower body esteem, and this may be associated with poor psychological well-being. Because discrimination has been associated with poor health, and perceptions of health can affect body perceptions, subjective health status may also contribute to lower body esteem. METHOD: These associations are assessed in a structural equation model for 244 African American and European American women in their early 60s. RESULTS: Perceptions of age discrimination and body esteem were associated with lower psychological well-being for both ethnic groups. Body esteem partially mediated the association between age discrimination and psychological well-being among European American women but not among African American women. DISCUSSION: Age-related discrimination is one source of psychological distress for older adults, though ageism's associations with body esteem, health, and psychological well-being vary significantly for European American and African American women. Examining body perceptions and health in the contexts of ageism and ethnicity is necessary when considering the psychological well-being of older women.

Ageism among college students: a comparative study between U.S. and China.

It is often assumed that Chinese people tend to have a more positive attitude toward aging and old age than Americans, due to the cultural generalization of collectivism versus individualism. This study aimed to critically examine this assumption by using first-hand empirical data collected in a Chinese and an American university (standardized surveys and in-depth focus group interviews). Respectively, 980 college students in China and 332 college students in the U.S. were recruited for the standardized surveys; whereas two focus-group interviews in each country (4 participants per group) were conducted to collect more in-depth information. Contrary to the common assumption, this study revealed that Chinese students actually hold more negative attitudes toward aging and older people compared to their American peers. It was also found that females tend to hold more positive attitudes than male students across both cultures, though American female students hold more positive attitudes than Chinese female students. Chinese students' interactions with seniors are often limited to their grandparents whereas American students tend to reach out to non-grandparent seniors in larger communities. Chinese students' more negative attitudes toward aging and older people may be a result of a combination of educational, social, and economic factors-a higher level of age segregation (geographically, socially, and intellectually) and a lack of gerontological curriculum in Chinese educational system, the caregiving burden faced by the one-child generation compounded with lack of governmental support for caregiving, as well as the rising youth-oriented consumerist culture.

Cross-cultural ageism: ageism and attitudes toward aging among Jews and Arabs in Israel.

BACKGROUND: While it is generally agreed that traditional societies are more favorable toward their elders, research findings have been inconsistent. Accordingly, this study presents a cultural comparison between Jews and Arabs in Israel in attitudes toward older adults and personal views regarding one's own aging. It was assumed that Arabs would rate their culture as more tolerant toward older adults, would report spending more time with them, and express lower ageism and aging anxieties. METHOD: We examined 154 native Israeli citizens, 86 Jewish and 68 Muslim Arabs, who completed measures of ageism, aging anxieties, and cultural views of older adults. RESULTS: Arabs rated their culture as more tolerant toward their elders, perceived older adults as significantly more contributing to society, and reported engaging in less avoiding behaviors toward them. Arabs also exhibited less general fears of growing old and concerns over one's physical appearance in old age. But it was interesting to note that Arab women reported higher scores of aging anxieties and ageist attitudes in comparison to Arab men, whereas no such differences were found among Jews. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings point that the cultural importance of elders for the Arab cohort transcends beyond Westernization processes which affect the Arab society in Israel, and reflect the demanding role of Arab women as primary caregivers for the elders in the family. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.

[Health care among older people with Turkish migration background: qualitative survey of health mediators]. / Gesundheitsversorgung älterer Menschen mit türkischem Migrationshintergrund: Qualitative Befragung von Gesundheitsmediatoren.

BACKGROUND: Older people with a Turkish migration background face various barriers in terms of access to and quality of health care. Providing health care according to their subjective and objective needs is of increasing importance considering demographic aging. The aim of this study was to illustrate challenges older migrants experience in the health care process from the viewpoint of health mediators. METHOD: Construct interviews were conducted with six health mediators and were analyzed by means of content analysis. RESULTS: The interviews showed three different challenges in health care for people with a Turkish migration background. These were the patients' coping with the disease, their health beliefs, and factors associated with the health care process and the doctor-patient relationship. CONCLUSION: The study highlights that it is important to make health care institutions aware of the culture specific characteristics of illness and therapy beliefs among people with a Turkish migrations background. Diversity management is an adequate strategy to adjust health care to the needs and requirements of an increasingly diverse population.

Psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Fraboni Scale of Ageism.

In this study, the reliability, validity, and psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Fraboni Scale of Ageism were assessed. The psychometric properties of the scale were studied through a descriptive and correlational design. The study sample consisted of 231 healthy people living in the Marmara region of Turkey. In order to obtain three sets of data, a questionnaire was designed containing demographic questions and the Scale. The content validity index for the full scale was 0.98. The α coefficient for 25 items was 0.84, and the split-half reliability of the Fraboni Scale of Ageism was 0.81. The three factors represented 38.31% of the variance. In this study, we concluded that the Turkish version of the Fraboni Scale of Ageism is a suitable instrument for measuring ageism in the Turkish population.