Exploring, measuring and explaining negative attitudes to own future old age

Abstract

There is an urgent need to understand the factors that can influence health and well-being in later years; one such factor is the level of unfavourability adults associate with their own ageing and future old age.  Given the potential for age-associated attitudes to impact adversely on health, particularly when negative, it was surprising that so little research has been carried out in this field.  This thesis contributes to current knowledge in three main ways: by exploring, measuring and explaining adults’ attitudes to potentially negative and threatening aspects of their own ageing and future old age.  Empirical research is reported from four main studies involving more than 3000 participants, including samples recruited personally from major cities in both the UK and the US.  In exploring age-associated attitudes, results suggest: a) that negative attitudes can be understood in relation to the level of threat adults associate with their own future old age, b) that those threats cross physical, social and psychological aspects of later life, and c) that such threats can be further understood in terms of the ability of the individual to minimise losses, manage constraints and create positive gains.  Replicated across sample groups, results also indicate that the ten new measures developed through this thesis do make a valuable contribution to the current field because: 1) a number of researchers have noted the paucity and inadequacy of measures in this field (e.g. Wullschleger et al, 1996), 2) the newly developed measures are short, easy to score and simple to interpret, and 3) replicated across sample groups, these measures have good psychometric properties, including good internal reliability and validity.  Finally, results indicate that attachment-related variables provided the best explanation for age-associated attitudes; specifically, a model is proposed consistent with the view that experiences in early relationships influence current representations of self and others and current coping strategies, which in turn influence negative age-associated attitudes.  Rival variables such as neuroticism and expected financial status did not add to the fit of the model.

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