Lotte Brinkhof, Jaap Murre, Sanne de Wit, Harm Krugers en Richard Ridderinkhof: ‘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’, in: Aging and Mental Health (28 april 2023). https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2023.2205832
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Article
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. -
Article
The Subjective Experience of Ageism: The Perceived Ageism Questionnaire (PAQ)
Ageism as perceived by older individuals has been recognized as a potential risk factor for physical and mental health. We aimed to develop a comprehensive scale that can quantify perceived ageism among aging individuals (55+), including both positive and negative stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminations. This effort resulted in an 8-item Perceived Ageism Questionnaire (PAQ-8), with good psychometric properties and a two-factor structure distinguishing a positive (3 items) and negative (5 items) subscale (Analysis 1; n = 500). This dimensionality was confirmed in a separate cross-validation sample (Analysis 2; n = 500). The subscales’ correlation patterns with individuals’ self-perceptions of aging and mental health variables (i.e., quality of life, mental well-being, depression, anxiety, loneliness and perceived stress) accorded with theoretical hypotheses and existing knowledge of the concept of ageism. The PAQ-8 can help to gather more standardized data of the level, role and impact of perceived ageism.
Citation: Brinkhof, L.P.; de Wit, S.; Murre, J.M.J.; Krugers, H.J.; Ridderinkhof, K.R. The Subjective
Experience of Ageism: The Perceived Ageism Questionnaire (PAQ). Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 8792. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148792