Dec 11, 2018 - â¢Adolescents who perceived themselves as becoming. âoldâ at later ages had more positive attitudes towards older adults (Teater & Chonody, ...
2018-12-11
17 November, 2018
Jennifer A. Bellingtier, University of Jena Kenny H. Nguyen, Catlin Gabel School/Washington State University Vancouver
Disclosure I have no commercial relationships to disclose. Please Cite as: Bellingtier, J. A., & Nguyen, K. H. (2018, November). Adolescents’ subjective perceptions of aging. In A. E. Kornadt & J. A. Bellingtier (Chairs), Perceptions of aging: Different concepts, lifespan approaches, and predictive relationships. Symposium conducted at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America. Boston, MA.
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Adolescent Views of Aging
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Adolescent Views of Aging • Adolescents associated “old age” with both negative
and positive words, e.g., disease, wisdom, retirement (de Freitas & Ferreira, 2013)
• Adolescents typically “feel” slightly older (Hubley & Arim, 2012) • Adolescents who perceived themselves as becoming
“old” at later ages had more positive attitudes towards older adults (Teater & Chonody, 2015)
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Aging and Adolescents • Attitudes towards aging and older adults develop
early in life (Gilbert & Ricketts, 2008) • Negative views have a detrimental effect on treatment
of current older adults (Isaacs and Bearison; 1986) • AND may come to be applied to the self (Levy, 2009; Levy et al., 2009)
• Adolescence as a time when attitudes become more
firmly established (Harwood, 2007) Bellingtier & Nguyen / Adolescents’ Subjective Perceptions of Aging / GSA 2018
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Subjective Perceptions of Aging • Ageism: descriptive vs. prescriptive (North & Fiske, 2013) • Succession- older adults should step aside • Consumption- older adults should not take too much • Identity- older individuals should not act young
• Developmental Transitions: when is someone “old”? (Chopik et al., 2018; Weiss & Lang, 2012)
• Subjective Age: how old do you feel? (Bellingtier & Neupert, 2018)
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Interindividual Differences • Gender-related differences (e.g., Allan & Johnson, 2009) • Age-related differences (e.g., North & Fiske, 2013) • Perfectionism: tendency to set excessively high
standards, little tolerance for mistakes, and focus on imperfections (Hill et al., 2004)
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Current Study • Investigate multiple components of adolescents
subjective perceptions of aging and inter-individual differences • H1) identity ageism would be greater than succession and
consumption • H2) women would report less ageism than men • H3) women would age more „quickly“ • H4) perfectionism will predict more negative perceptions
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Methods • The Catlin Gabel Study of Daily Experiences • Participants: n= 239
• Age range: 13 to 18 (M = 15.62, SD = 1.22) • 50% male • 65% European American, 16% Asian American,
12% Biracial
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Methods • Survey assessment completed online • Daily diary portion: • 8 daily diaries assessments spread over 3 weeks • M = 7 assessments per participant • Total days completed = 1596
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Methods • Survey Measures:
• Ageism:
Succession, Identity, & Consumption Scale (SIC;
North & Fiske, 2013), Cronbach‘s α from .84 to .88
• Developmental
Transitions: age of adulthood, middle-age, old age for self, men, & women (based on MIDUS questionnaire) • Perfectionism: the Perfectionism Inventory (Hill et al., 2004), Cronbach‘s α = .93
• Daily
Measures: • Subjective age: discrepancy score, averaged across days Bellingtier & Nguyen / Adolescents’ Subjective Perceptions of Aging / GSA 2018
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Variable
Descriptives Variable Consumption Succession Identity Subjective Age Perfectionism
M (SD) 2.18 (0.89) 3.48 (1.12) 2.27 (1.05) 1.79 (4.42) 22.48 (3.92)
Corr. with Age .26** .21** .04 .14* .08
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M (SD)
Adulthood Men 22.58 (3.87) Adulthood 21.06 Women (3.84) Adulthood Self 21.27 (4.36) Mid Age Men 39.39 (6.89) Mid Age 38.27 Women (6.95) Mid Age Self 38.80 (7.89) Old Age Men 57.51 (9.03) Old Age 56.81 Women (9.73) Old Age Self 57.94 (10.14)
Corr. with Age .18** .16* .23** .03 -.04 -.02 .07 .01 .03 Folie 12
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Variable 1. Consumption
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2. Succession
.59**
3. Identity
.39**
.40**
4. Adulthood Men
.03
-.03
-.01
5. Adulthood Women 6. Adulthood Self
.02
-.11
.04
.56**
.05
.05
.08
.53**
.54**
7. Mid Age Men
-.06
-.03
-.08
.22**
.20**
.14*
8. Mid Age Women -.06
-.01
-.07
.07
.18**
.09
.85**
8
9
10
11
9. Mid Age Self
-.02
.01
-.02
.03
.06
.03
.71**
.75**
10. Old Age Men
-.04
.01
-.04
.02
.08
.10
.63**
.64**
.51**
11. Old Age Women 12. Old Age Self
-.04
.03
-.04
.07
.14*
.14*
.63**
.70**
.52**
.81**
-.09
-.004
-.05
.02
.08
.03
.59**
.62**
.69**
.79**
.77**
13. Subjective Age
.05
.01
-.05
.16*
.10
.17**
.002
.01
-.02
-.04
-.03
Results H1: identity H2: gender Trend M>W p = .057
4
*
12
13
-.10
*
3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0
Consumption
Succession Men
Identity
Women Error bars: Std. Error
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Results H3: Developmental Transitions Age Adulthood Begins *
25
*
24
Age
23
*
22 21 20 19 18
Men
Women Men
Self
Women Error bars: Std. Error
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Results H3: Developmental Transitions Beginning of Middle Age 42
*
41
Age
40 39 38 37 36 35
Men
Women Men
Self
Women Error bars: Std. Error
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Results H3: Developmental Transitions Beginning of Old Age 60
* 59 58 57 56 55 54
Men
Women Men
Self
Women Error bars: Std. Error
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Results H4: Perfectionsim Ageism Ratings
3 2.5
* Consumption
2
Succession Identity
1.5 1 low
high Perfectionism
• Perfectionism predicts Subjective Age, r (237) = .17, p = .03 • No association with developmental transitions Bellingtier & Nguyen / Adolescents’ Subjective Perceptions of Aging / GSA 2018
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Discussion • Study provides a current view of multiple perceptions
of aging in adolescents.
Subscale
M (SD)
Succession
3.48 (1.12) 2.27 (1.05) 2.18 (0.89)
Identity Consumption From North & Fiske, 2013
Current Study
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Discussion • Succession was the most common form of ageism
endorsed by adolescents • Teens may already be considering future job prospects (Negru-Subtirica & Pop, 2016)
• Possible frustration with politics (DeJonckheere et al., 2018) • Trending gender difference
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Discussion • Double-standard of aging (Deutsch et al., 1986) • Men were perceived to reach adulthood later,
especially by women (cf., Oesterle et al., 2010) • Women were perceived to reach middle age sooner
than men, and older age sooner than oneself (cf., Morelock et al., 2017)
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Discussion • Perfectionism predicted higher succession ageism • Lower tolerance for mistakes, highly critical of self/others (cf. Cox & Hill, 2018)
• Perfectionists were also more likely to perceive
themselves as subjectively older • Possible link with stress generation (Smith et al., 2017)
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Limitations & Future Directions • Convenience sample replication needed • Intergenerational tensions are likely to display
cohort/testing/culture effects longitudinal/intraindividual research needed
• Unknown if SIC ageism predicts discrimination
in adolescents additional behavioral measures
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Conclusions • This study adds to our
understanding of subjective perceptions of aging in adolescents and suggests adolescents are more concerned with their future opportunities than establishing separate “youth” identities
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Thank you for your attention! Vielen Dank für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit! Special thanks to the students, parents, teachers, and collaborators at Caitlin Gabel Upper School.
www.devpsy.uni-jena.de www.celise.uni-jena.de
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