Development and Initial Validation of the Adolescents' Ageism Toward Older Adults Scale.
Attitudes
Development
Instrument
Psychometric
Teenagers
Journal
The Gerontologist
ISSN: 1758-5341
Titre abrégé: Gerontologist
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 0375327
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
28 Mar 2022
28 Mar 2022
Historique:
received:
06
09
2020
pubmed:
17
2
2021
medline:
19
4
2022
entrez:
16
2
2021
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Ageism toward older adults, prevalent in contemporary societies, seems to be internalized during childhood and consolidated during adolescence. Although several instruments have been developed to measure adolescents' ageism, they present a number of limitations. The study aimed at developing a new instrument, the Adolescents' Ageism Toward Older Adults Scale, and testing its psychometric properties. A three-phase process was followed: The instrument's items were developed empirically from focus groups of adolescents; its content validity was evaluated; and finally, its psychometric properties were tested through a multicenter cross-sectional study involving 575 adolescents. Exploratory factor analysis of the new scale retained 33 items grouped into 6 factors: moodiness, traditionalism, physical deterioration, antitechnologism, sageness, and sociability. Confirmatory factor analysis evidenced a second-order factor structure. Omega coefficients measuring internal consistency were above the cutoff of 0.60 for the 6 factors except for antitechnologism. Intraclass correlation coefficients for the entire scale and for the 6 factors were greater than 0.70, again excepting antitechnologism. The Adolescents' Ageism Toward Older Adults Scale is a promising measure of adolescents' negative and positive attitudes toward older adults. Its validation highlighted some criticalities that can be resolved by a few modifications. Further testing of the scale should be conducted after these modifications.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
OBJECTIVE
Ageism toward older adults, prevalent in contemporary societies, seems to be internalized during childhood and consolidated during adolescence. Although several instruments have been developed to measure adolescents' ageism, they present a number of limitations. The study aimed at developing a new instrument, the Adolescents' Ageism Toward Older Adults Scale, and testing its psychometric properties.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
METHODS
A three-phase process was followed: The instrument's items were developed empirically from focus groups of adolescents; its content validity was evaluated; and finally, its psychometric properties were tested through a multicenter cross-sectional study involving 575 adolescents.
RESULTS
RESULTS
Exploratory factor analysis of the new scale retained 33 items grouped into 6 factors: moodiness, traditionalism, physical deterioration, antitechnologism, sageness, and sociability. Confirmatory factor analysis evidenced a second-order factor structure. Omega coefficients measuring internal consistency were above the cutoff of 0.60 for the 6 factors except for antitechnologism. Intraclass correlation coefficients for the entire scale and for the 6 factors were greater than 0.70, again excepting antitechnologism.
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
CONCLUSIONS
The Adolescents' Ageism Toward Older Adults Scale is a promising measure of adolescents' negative and positive attitudes toward older adults. Its validation highlighted some criticalities that can be resolved by a few modifications. Further testing of the scale should be conducted after these modifications.
Identifiants
pubmed: 33592099
pii: 6138815
doi: 10.1093/geront/gnab023
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Multicenter Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
e150-e161Informations de copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.