Abstract
Stereotyped beliefs about old age and the aging process have proven to strongly promote negative behaviors toward the elderly, with unfavorable influences on their mental and physical health. Therefore, it is important to assess negative aging attitudes with brief but reliable and validated measurement instruments. The psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Negative Stereotypes Towards Aging Questionnaire (15 items self-reported) are explored and described in a sample of 302 participants (213 females and 89 males) between the ages of 18 and 59 years old. Confirmatory Factor Analysis shows a one-factor structure, similar to the Spanish version. The internal reliability and mean inter-item correlation showed satisfactory psychometric proprieties. Factorial ANOVA reveals that differences in agism beliefs are mainly related to educational level, with lower negative stereotypes in more educated adults. No differences were found concerning gender. This instrument may be a useful tool to assess negative stereotypes toward old age and the aging process.
Highlights
Demographic aging is rapidly accelerating worldwide, and this shift has profound implications for today’s societies (World Health Organization, 2015)
The analysis showed three factors, which can vary between 5 and 20 points with higher scores indicating a high degree of belief in negative stereotypes about old age and low scores indicating a weak belief in negative stereotypes regarding old age
Our first step in assessing the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of CENVE was to replicate it using a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) operating with the maximum likelihood (ML) method and the unifactorial structure proposed for this instrument by Menéndez et al (2016) and Authors (2015)
Summary
Demographic aging is rapidly accelerating worldwide, and this shift has profound implications for today’s societies (World Health Organization, 2015). There is a tendency for a more positive image and greater evidence supporting that older adults can contribute to Stereotypes are unchallenged myths, overstated beliefs or tendentious, preconceived ideas, often negative, associated with a category that are widespread, and mainly used to define and limit people or groups of people in society (Fiske & Tablante, 2015; Helmes & Pachana, 2016) They have important influences on behavior and operate through a variety of mechanisms (Helmes & Pachana, 2016). Stereotypes of aging include assumptions and generalizations about older people without regard for individual differences or unique circumstances (Fiske & Tablante, 2015; Moreira, 2012; Wachelke & Contarello, 2011)
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