Sources of aging anxiety in the non-elderly population: The importance of images, perceptions, and social resources

Anxiety about aging appears to be both a result of negative stereotyping of older adults and young and middle-aged adults' perceptions that these problems are possibilities for their own future. The term used to describe negative bias against older adults is "ageism." Common forms of ageism include devaluing the contributions of older adults and viewing the pathologies of late life as a normative process of aging. Ageism combines with other forms of oppression and social devaluation to promote "double" and "triple" jeopardy situations.;The construct of ageism is critical when examining attitudes toward elderly individuals and one's own adjustment to the aging processes. The research addresses four questions. First, how do gender, race, and socio-economic status affect aging anxiety and perceptions about the elderly? Second, how do diverse perceptions of the older population and exposure to older adults affect the personal experience of aging anxiety? Third, does a link exist between accurate knowledge/positive perceptions about aging on a group- or macro-level and anxieties about aging on a personal level? Fourth, do domains of aging anxiety, knowledge, and perceptions differ by age group?;Multiple regression techniques were used to explore how sociodemographic characteristics influence aging knowledge and aging anxiety. A one-way analysis-of-variance test was used to examine whether different categories of demographic characteristics have any detectable affect on aging knowledge or aging anxiety. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine whether the scales used in the original sample, Palmore's Facts on Aging Quiz (1977) and Kafer's Anxiety Scale (1980), were uni- or multidimensional.;There were several important findings, including that (1) race, gender, socio-economic status, parents' health, income, education, contact with older adults, marital status, and knowledge about the aging process affect aging anxiety; (2) the age pattern of anxiety is declining, and younger adults are significantly more anxious about aging than middle-aged or older adults; (3) increased factual knowledge about aging can result in negative outcomes; (4) both aging knowledge and aging anxiety should be measured as multidimensional constructs.