Understanding the mechanisms underlying the effects of negative age stereotypes and perceived age discrimination on older adults’ well-being

Abstract

Objectives: Although numerous studies have documented that negative age stereotypes and perceived age discrimination are related to older adults’ lower well-being, few studies have investigated the mechanisms underlying these relationships. In this study, we tested whether self-perceptions of aging and subjective age would help to account for the relation between stereotypes and discrimination and self-esteem. According to the internalization hypothesis, we expected that the effects of negative age stereotypes and greater perceived age discrimination would be driven by more negative self-perceptions of aging and older subjective age.

Method: A total of 151 older adults completed questions assessing their endorsement of negative age stereotypes, perceived age discrimination, self-perceptions of aging, subjective age, and self-esteem. Relationships among these variables were assessed using serial mediation analyses.

Results: Consistent with the internalization hypothesis, negative age stereotypes and perceived age discrimination indirectly predicted older subjective age and lower self-esteem through worsening self-perceptions of aging. However, we did not find a direct effect of negative age stereotypes or perceived discrimination on subjective age, nor an indirect effect of negative age stereotypes and perceived age discrimination on self-esteem through subjective age.

Conclusion: These results support the internalization hypothesis: among older adults, holding more negative age stereotypes and perceiving more age discrimination is associated with feeling older and with lower self-esteem through worsened perceptions of one’s own aging. Given the central role of self-perceptions of aging, these findings highlight the importance of promoting more positive self-perceptions in order to maintain or increase older adults’ well-being.

Keywords:

• Negative age stereotypes
• perceived age discrimination
• self-perceptions of aging
• subjective age
• self-esteem

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fund for Scientific Research Belgium (F. R. S. – FNRS) to Manon Marquet (Research Fellow), by a Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) to Alison L. Chasteen, by Insight Grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to Alison L. Chasteen and Jason E. Plaks, and by an Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) from NSERC to Laksmiina Balasubramaniam.