Internalised Ageing Stereotypes, Mental Health and the Role of Loneliness

The paper analyses the role of considering oneself as an older person (which can be an indicator of internalised ageing stereotypes) in the relationship between ageist stereotypes, loneliness, and psychological distress, such as anxiety, depressive, and comorbid anxiety-depressive symptoms, in autonomous community-dwelling older adults (n = 182, aged 60 to 88). 

According to the findings, ageist stereotypes influence anxiety, depressive, and comorbid anxiety-depressive symptoms in older adults but only in those who consider themselves as older persons. This relationship is mediated by loneliness. 

"This study suggests that, when someone considers him or herself as an older person, ageist stereotypes activate loneliness feelings, and this activation is associated with psychological distress, including anxiety, depressive, and comorbid anxiety-depressive symptoms." (Pedroso-Chaparro et al., 2023)

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- Pedroso-Chaparro, M.S., Anton-Lopez, J.C., Cabrera, I. & Marquez-Gonzalez, M. (2023). "I feel old and have aging stereotypes". Internalized aging stereotypes and older adults' mental health: the mediational role of lonelines. Agin & Mental Health, Taylor & Francis Group.
- photograph by the great Fred Herzog (1961, copyright by respective owner) via

Being needed, staying alive

There is a link between feeling needed and mortality. According to a study, carried out in Japan (Okamoto & Tanaka, 2004) among people aged 65 or older, those not given the feeling to be useful were twice as likely to die over a six-year-follow-up period. Results of a study carried out in Finland (Pitkala et al., 2004) among people aged 75 or older are similar. Those feeling needed were, in fact, less likely to die within the following ten years (and less likely to end up in institutionalised care over a five-year-follow-up period). Just to mention two studies...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Gruenewald, T. L., Karlamanga, A. S., Greendale, G. A., Singer,  B. H. & Seeman T. E. (2007) Feelings of Usefulness to Others, Disability, and Mortality in Older Adults: The MacArthur Study of Successful Aging., Journal of Gerontology, 62B, 1, 28-37.
- photograph by Leon Levinstein, Whitney Museum of American Art, copyright by artist or artist's estate, via