Abstract
Ageism is the most prevalent form of prejudice and is experienced by both older and younger people. Little is known about whether these experiences are interdependent or have common origins. We analyze data from 8,117 older (aged 70 and over) and 11,647 younger respondents (15–29 years) in representative samples from 29 countries in the European Social Survey. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, we test the hypothesis that older people are less likely, and younger people more likely, to suffer age discrimination if they live in a country with stronger structural support for older people. We also test the hypothesis that although stronger social norm against age discrimination reduce age discrimination suffered by older people it does not inhibit discrimination against younger people. These hypotheses are supported, and the results underline the neglected problem of ageism toward youth. Findings highlight that strategies for reducing age prejudice must address ageism as a multigenerational challenge, requiring attention to intergenerational cohesion and resource distribution between ages.
Highlights
Development across the life span involves biological and cognitive ageing, and a changing social environment that responds differently as a function of how others perceive one’s age
As it was not statistically defensible to use both indices in multilevel models, we focus here on the analyses using the AgeWatch Index
Further details on associations between the AgeWatch Index and experiences of age discrimination in the various countries are provided in the online supplemental materials (Figure S3a and Table S7)
Summary
Development across the life span involves biological and cognitive ageing, and a changing social environment that responds differently as a function of how others perceive one’s age. We propose that the same social environments are experienced differently by younger and older people, and that where conditions improve for older people, the conditions for younger people might well decline. We hypothesize that structural and ideological differences may account for variations in countries’ levels of age discrimination, and for differences in the extent to which younger and older people experience age discrimination. These hypotheses are tested using multilevel structural equation modeling (multilevel SEM) of data from representative samples from 29 countries in Round 4 of the European Social Survey (ESS). Cowgill suggested that the increased proportion of retired or unemployed older people and their dependency on younger working people result in a loss of status for older people
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