Personal values and people's attitudes toward older adults. 2023

Joelle H Fong, and Ting-Yan Wang
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.

We examine the relationship between people's personal values and their attitudes toward older adults. In addition to the two conventionally-used measures of personal values (agency subdimension and communion subdimension), we distinguish across 10 different value types and explore how each impacts attitude. We use data from the World Values Survey for three aging Asian societies, namely Japan (N = 2448), Singapore (N = 1972), and Hong Kong PRC (N = 1000). For each sample, we perform regression-based analyses to assess the relative importance of the 10 value types in explaining people's attitudes towards older adults. Results are then compared against regressions based on the two aggregate value measures. In all three economies, the agency subdimension was a more consistent predictor of unfavorable attitudes toward older adults, as compared to the communion subdimension. Our disaggregated analysis reveals two additional insights. First, the positive association between agentic values and attitudes was driven predominantly by the power (wealth) and stimulation (excitement) value types. Second, the lack of association between the communion subdimension and attitudes must be interpreted with caution since certain value types within this subdimension may act in opposite directions causing effects to cancel each other out at the aggregate level. Disaggregating personal value types provides greater prognostic power than the two aggregate measures, as well as insights on ways to improve people's attitudes toward older adults. Interventions aimed at reducing ageist attitudes in aging societies can target individuals with agentic traits by emphasizing notions of power (e.g., older adults' economic success) and stimulation (e.g., positive images of older adults learning new things).

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D011795 Surveys and Questionnaires Collections of data obtained from voluntary subjects. The information usually takes the form of answers to questions, or suggestions. Community Survey,Nonrespondent,Questionnaire,Questionnaires,Respondent,Survey,Survey Method,Survey Methods,Surveys,Baseline Survey,Community Surveys,Methodology, Survey,Nonrespondents,Questionnaire Design,Randomized Response Technique,Repeated Rounds of Survey,Respondents,Survey Methodology,Baseline Surveys,Design, Questionnaire,Designs, Questionnaire,Methods, Survey,Questionnaire Designs,Questionnaires and Surveys,Randomized Response Techniques,Response Technique, Randomized,Response Techniques, Randomized,Survey, Baseline,Survey, Community,Surveys, Baseline,Surveys, Community,Techniques, Randomized Response
D012044 Regression Analysis Procedures for finding the mathematical function which best describes the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. In linear regression (see LINEAR MODELS) the relationship is constrained to be a straight line and LEAST-SQUARES ANALYSIS is used to determine the best fit. In logistic regression (see LOGISTIC MODELS) the dependent variable is qualitative rather than continuously variable and LIKELIHOOD FUNCTIONS are used to find the best relationship. In multiple regression, the dependent variable is considered to depend on more than a single independent variable. Regression Diagnostics,Statistical Regression,Analysis, Regression,Analyses, Regression,Diagnostics, Regression,Regression Analyses,Regression, Statistical,Regressions, Statistical,Statistical Regressions
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000368 Aged A person 65 years of age or older. For a person older than 79 years, AGED, 80 AND OVER is available. Elderly
D000375 Aging The gradual irreversible changes in structure and function of an organism that occur as a result of the passage of time. Senescence,Aging, Biological,Biological Aging
D001290 Attitude An enduring, learned predisposition to behave in a consistent way toward a given class of objects, or a persistent mental and/or neural state of readiness to react to a certain class of objects, not as they are but as they are conceived to be. Sentiment,Attitudes,Opinions,Opinion,Sentiments
D063506 Ageism Biased behaviors or attitudes, differential treatment, unequal access to social participation or opportunities based on age. Age Discrimination,Age Discriminations,Discrimination, Age,Discriminations, Age

Related Publications

Joelle H Fong, and Ting-Yan Wang
February 2016, Psychology and aging,
Joelle H Fong, and Ting-Yan Wang
February 2014, Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association,
Joelle H Fong, and Ting-Yan Wang
July 2011, The Journal of nursing education,
Joelle H Fong, and Ting-Yan Wang
January 2023, Frontiers in public health,
Joelle H Fong, and Ting-Yan Wang
August 2017, Aging clinical and experimental research,
Joelle H Fong, and Ting-Yan Wang
January 2010, International journal of aging & human development,
Joelle H Fong, and Ting-Yan Wang
January 2010, Gerontology & geriatrics education,
Joelle H Fong, and Ting-Yan Wang
April 2011, Community mental health journal,
Joelle H Fong, and Ting-Yan Wang
May 2011, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges,
Copied contents to your clipboard!