Towards an intragroup approach to alleviate ageism in the second half of life.

Abstract

Ageism, defined as stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination based on age is highly prevalent and has negative health and mental health impacts. Although interventions to reduce ageism directed by younger agents of ageism towards older persons exist, there is scarcity of knowledge concerning interventions to alleviate ageism directed by older persons towards other older persons or towards themselves. The proposed intragroup approach to ageism challenges the traditional view of older persons solely as victims of ageism, highlighting their role as both agents or targeters and targets of ageism-thus, exhibiting self-directed and other-directed ageism, pointed towards themselves and towards other older persons, respectively. The intragroup approach emphasizes the complexity of ageism in the second half of life, when bias and conflict occur within the group of older persons rather than between groups, thus, requiring a nuanced understanding of one's subjective social group identification. The proposed theoretical framework identifies needed steps to transition towards personalized interventions of ageism, which affect change by matching interventions to the characteristics of the individual and the context in which ageism operates. This includes attention to the relationships between self-and other-directed ageism, as determined by subjective social group identification, the multidimensional nature of ageism, as composed of stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination including an implicit component, and the possible impact of contextual factors, related to the prominence of ageism in society.