Subjective Perceptions of Aging

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.

Bellingtier & Nguyen / Adolescents’ Subjective Perceptions of Aging / GSA 2018

Folie 2

1

2018-12-11

Adolescent Views of Aging


Folie 3

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)


Folie 4

2

2018-12-11

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

Folie 5

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)


Folie 6

3

2018-12-11

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)


Folie 7

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


Folie 8

4

2018-12-11

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


Folie 9

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


Folie 10

5

2018-12-11

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

Folie 11

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


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

6

2018-12-11

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


Folie 14

7

2018-12-11

Results H3: Developmental Transitions Age Adulthood Begins *

25

*

24

Age

23

*

22 21 20 19 18

Men

Women Men

Self



Folie 15

Results H3: Developmental Transitions Beginning of Middle Age 42

*

41

Age

40 39 38 37 36 35

Men

Women Men

Self



Folie 16

8

2018-12-11

Results H3: Developmental Transitions Beginning of Old Age 60

* 59 58 57 56 55 54

Men

Women Men

Self



Folie 17

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

Folie 18

9

2018-12-11

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


Folie 19

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


Folie 20

10

2018-12-11

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)


Folie 21

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)


Folie 22

11

2018-12-11

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


Folie 23

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


Folie 24

12

2018-12-11

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

13