Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T01:40:33.813Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ageism in informal care network members of older women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2019

Mary F. Wyman Open the ORCID record for Mary F. Wyman [Opens in a new window] ,
Sharon Shiovitz-Ezra  and
Ohad Parag
Mary F. Wyman*
Affiliation:
W.S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA
Sharon Shiovitz-Ezra
Affiliation:
Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Ohad Parag
Affiliation:
Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Mary F. Wyman, W.S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, c/o GRECC 11G, 2500 Overlook Terrace, Madison, WI 53705, USA. Phone: +1 608-280-7000; Fax: +1 608-280-7291. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objectives:

Negative attitudes toward aging are common among formal healthcare providers, but have been infrequently assessed among informal caregivers providing assistance to older adults. The current study sought to identify factors associated with ageism toward older women.

Design:

Multivariate hierarchical linear regression model

Setting:

Lower-income neighborhoods in an urban setting in the Midwestern USA

Participants:

144 care network members of White and African American women aged ≥ 65 years

Measurements:

Age Group Evaluation and Description (AGED) Inventory assessed attitudes toward older women; CES-D scale measured depressive symptoms; Intergenerational Affectional Solidarity Scale assessed relationship closeness.

Results:

In bivariate analyses, African American caregivers endorsed more positive attitudes toward older women. In the multivariate regression model, attitudes toward older women were associated with care recipient health (β = 0.18, p < 0.05) and relationship closeness with the care recipient (β = 0.23, p < 0.05). However, these associations were fully mediated by care recipient-specific attitude ratings by the care network member. The association between person-specific attitudes and general attitudes was uniquely directional.

Conclusions:

Findings from the present study are consistent with past research suggesting that ‘ageism’ may, at least in part, derive from bias against perceived poor health. Further, our findings of an association between attitude toward the care recipient and attitudes toward older women in general provide support for cognitive psychology theory which emphasizes the role of personal experience in stereotype formation through the availability heuristic. The current study underlines the necessity for development of interventions to address ageism in informal caregivers.

Keywords

healthismageisminformal caregivingavailability heuristicgroup impressions
Type
Original Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 31 , Issue 10: Issue Theme: Dementia and the Society , October 2019 , pp. 1463 - 1472
Copyright
© International Psychogeriatric Association 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barker, J. C. (2002). Neighbors, friends, and other non-kin caregivers of community-living dependent elders. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 57, S158–S167. doi: 10.1093/geronb/57.3.S158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben-Harush, A. et al. (2017). Ageism among physicians, nurses, and social workers: findings from a qualitative study. European Journal of Ageing, 14, 39–48. doi: 10.1007/s10433-016-0389-9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blalock, A. J. and Joiner, T. E. Jr. (2000). Interaction of cognitive avoidance coping and stress in predicting depression/anxiety. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 24, 47–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bland, J. M. and Altman, D. G. (1997). Statistics notes; Cronbach’s alpha. British Medical Journal, 314, 572–572. doi: 10.1136/bmj.314.7080.572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borson, S. and Chodosh, J. (2014). Developing dementia-capable health care systems: a 12-step program. Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, 30, 395–420. doi: 10.1016/j.cger.2014.05.001.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Callahan, C. M. and Wolinsky, F. D. (1994). The effect of gender and race on the measurement properties of the CES-D in older adults. Medical Care, 32, 341–356. doi: 10.1097/00005650-199404000-00003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Couture, M., Larivière, N. and Lefrançois, R. (2005). Psychological distress in older adults with low functional independence: a multidimensional perspective. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 41, 101–111. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2004.12.004.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Donelan, K. et al. (2002). Challenged to care: informal caregivers in a changing health system. Health Affairs, 21, 222–231. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.21.4.222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duberstein, P. R. et al. (2003). Personality is associated with perceived health and functional status in older primary care patients. Psychology and Aging, 18, 25–37. doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.18.1.25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gekoski, W. L. and Knox, V. J. (1990). Ageism or healthism? Perceptions based on age and health status. Journal of Aging and Health, 2, 15–27. doi: 10.1177/089826439000200102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gekoski, W. L., Knox, V. J., Johnson, E. A. and Evans, K. R. (1984). Sex of target and sex of subject effects on the perception of 25, 45, 65, and 85 year olds. Canadian Journal on Aging, 3, 155–164. doi: 10.1017/S0714980800004773.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilovich, T., Griffin, D. and Kahneman, D. (eds.) (2002). Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Given, B., Sherwood, P. R. and Given, C. W. (2008). What knowledge and skills do caregivers need? Journal of Social Work Education, 44, 115–123. doi: 10.5175/JSWE.2008.773247703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunderson, A., Tomkowiak, J., Menachemi, N. and Brooks, R. (2005). Rural physicians’ attitudes toward the elderly: evidence of ageism? Quality Management in Health Care, 14, 167–176. doi: 10.1097/00019514-200507000-00006.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haley, W. E. et al. (2004). Well-being, appraisal, and coping in African-American and Caucasian dementia caregivers: findings from the REACH study. Aging and Mental Health, 8, 316–329. doi: 10.1080/13607860410001728998.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach, 1st ed. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Hilton, J. L. and von Hippel, W. (1996). Stereotypes. Annual Review of Psychology, 47, 237–271. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.47.1.237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hunter, J. E. and Schmidt, F. L. (2004). Methods of Meta-Analysis: Correcting Error and Bias in Research Findings. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Institute of Medicine (2008). Retooling for an aging America: building the healthcare workforce. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12089.Google Scholar
James, J. W. and Haley, W. E. (1995). Age and health bias in practicing clinical psychologists. Psychology and Aging, 10, 610–616. doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.10.4.610.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jelenec, P. and Steffens, M. C. (2002). Implicit attitudes toward elderly women and men. Current Research in Social Psychology, 7, 275–293.Google Scholar
Kite, M. E., Stockdale, G. D., Whitley, B. E. Jr. and Johnson, B. T. (2005). Attitudes toward younger and older adults: an updated meta-analytic review. Journal of Social Issues, 61, 241–266. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2005.00404.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knox, V. J., Gekoski, W. L. and Kelly, L. E. (1995). The Age Group Evaluation and Description (AGED) inventory: a new instrument for assessing stereotypes of and attitudes toward age groups. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 40, 31–55. doi: 10.2190/8CUC-4XK8-M33K-07YD.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lambrinou, E., Sourtzi, P., Kalokerinou, A. and Lemonidou, C. (2009). Attitudes and knowledge of the Greek nursing students towards older people. Nurse Education Today, 29, 617–622. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2009.01.011.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leung, S., Logiudice, D., Schwarz, J. and Brand, C. (2011). Hospital doctors’ attitudes towards older people. Internal Medicine Journal, 41, 308–314. doi: 10.1111/j.1445-5994.2009.02140.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loi, S. M. et al. (2015). Attitudes to aging in older carers - do they have a role in their well-being? International Psychogeriatrics, 27, 1893–1901. doi: 10.1017/S1041610215000873.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luchesi, B. M. et al. (2016). Factors associated with attitudes toward the elderly in a sample of elderly caregivers. International Psychogeriatrics, 28, 2079–2089. doi: 10.1017/S1041610216001538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maxwell, S. E. and Delaney, H. D. (2004). Designing Experiments and Analyzing Data: A Model Comparison Perspective, 2nd edn. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Montgomery, R. J. (2006). Using and interpreting the Montgomery Borgatta caregiving burden scale. Unpublished report.Google Scholar
Nelson, T. D. (ed.) (2017). Ageism: Stereotyping and Prejudice Against Older Persons, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, J. F. et al. (2005). Ageism and ageist language across the life span: intimate relationships and non-intimate interactions. Journal of Social Issues, 61, 287–305. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2005.00406.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osborne, J. and Waters, E. (2002). Four assumptions of multiple regression that researchers should always test. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 8. Available at: https://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=8&n=2.Google Scholar
Peake, M. D., Thompson, S., Lowe, D. and Pearson, M. G. (2003). Ageism in the management of lung cancer. Age and Ageing, 32, 171–177. doi: 10.1093/ageing/32.2.171.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Preacher, K. J. and Kelley, K. (2011). Effect size measures for mediation models: quantitative strategies for communicating indirect effects. Psychological Methods, 16, 93–115. doi: 10.1037/a0022658.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401. doi: 10.1177/014662167700100306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothbart, M., Fulero, S., Jensen, C., Howard, J. and Birrell, P. (1978). From individual to group impressions: availability heuristics in stereotype formation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 14, 237–255. doi: 10.1016/0022-1031(78)90013-6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schroyen, S., Missotten, P., Jerusalem, G., Gilles, C. and Adam, S. (2016). Ageism and caring attitudes among nurses in oncology. International Psychogeriatrics, 28, 749–757. doi: 10.1017/S1041610215001970.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shrout, P. E. and Bolger, N. (2002). Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: new procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 7, 422–445. doi: 10.1037/1082-989X.7.4.422.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Silverstein, M. and Bengtson, V. L. (1991). Do close parent-child relations reduce the mortality risk of older parents? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 32, 382–395. doi: 10.2307/2137105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swindle, R. W. Jr., Heller, K., Alexander, D. B., Allen, S. M. and Wyman, M. F. (2001). Sources of stressor-specific negative transactions and depressive symptoms among White and African American older women. Applied Developmental Science, 5, 98–111. doi: 10.1207/S1532480XADS0502_5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tongco, M. D. C. (2007). Purposive sampling as a tool for informant selection. Ethnobotany Research and Applications, 5, 147–158. doi: 10.17348/era.5.0.147-158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tversky, A. and Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: a heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology, 5, 207–232. doi: 10.1016/0010-0285(73)90033-9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Twisk, J. and de Vente, W. (2002). Attrition in longitudinal studies: how to deal with missing data. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 55, 329–337. doi: 10.1016/S0895-4356(01)00476-0.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Verbakel, E., Tamlagsronning, S., Winstone, L., Fjaer, E. L. and Eikemo, T. A. (2017). Informal care in Europe: findings from the European Social Survey (2014) special module on the social determinants of health. European Journal of Public Health, 27, 90–95. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckw229.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ware, J. E. and Sherbourne, C. D. (1992). The MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36): I. Conceptual framework and item selection. Medical Care, 30, 473–483. doi: 10.1097/00005650-199206000-00002.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wolff, J. L. and Roter, D. L. (2011). Family presence in routine medical visits: a meta-analytical review. Social Science and Medicine, 72, 823–831. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.01.015.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wyman, M. F., Shiovitz-Ezra, S. and Bengel, J. (2018). Ageism in the healthcare system: providers, patients, and systems. In: Ayalon, L. and Tesch-Römer, C. (eds.), Contemporary Perspectives on Ageism: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach. New York: Springer.Google Scholar