An experimental study of mindfulness and acceptance-based skills for internalized ageism in older adults and college students

Abstract

Objectives

Older adults (OA; 65+) can become cognitively fused with negative attitudes and stereotypes. Given the verbal nature of ageist stereotypes, mindfulness and acceptance-based practices (MABPs) may help the impact of negative aging attitudes by increasing non-judgmental awareness, cognitive defusion, and acceptance. As part of a larger study, this project examined whether an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) consistent MABP would reduce negative aging attitudes using an experimental design. We hypothesized that assignment to the MABP condition would be associated with lower negative aging attitudes for both OAs and university undergraduates (18-25).

Method

Both OAs (N = 60) and undergraduate student (N = 60) participants were assigned to the experimental or comparison condition (MABP vs. sit-and-think task) and were then presented negative ageist stereotypes assessed with two ageism measures.

Results

Following the MABP, undergraduates who received a MABP had significantly lower ageism scores than did undergraduates who did not, while OAs endorsed higher scores on ageism after receiving the MABP (vs comparison group; ps < .05). There was no significant condition by age sample interaction effect.

Conclusion

Results suggest that undergraduates and OAs may have different strategies for recontextualizing ageist attitudes, with OAs possibly employing different strategies when confronted with ageism in an experimental context. Overall, aging education, OA experimental research, and evidence-based interventions for negative beliefs about aging are needed. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Keywords:

• Aging
• mindfulness
• ageism
• older adult
• undergraduate
• stereotype
• experimental

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Contextual Psychology Group at the University of North Texas for assisting with data collection and completion of this project, as well as Alejandro Baez for his contributions revising the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

Data will be made available by authors upon request

Author contributions

All authors made significant contribution to the work reported, including its conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation. EGL drafted the manuscript and ARM supervised the project and provided essential edits for revisions. Both authors approve of the manuscript in its current form.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Consent Was Obtained From All Individual Participants Included In The Study.

Additional information

Funding

There are no funding details to disclose for this manuscript.