Date of Award
Summer 8-24-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Frank Igou
Abstract
Individuals in the workforce increasingly achieve higher education, live longer, and remain in the workforce longer than previous generations. At the same time, ageist stereotypes and age discrimination persist, costing companies millions of dollars, generating negative PR, and contributing to harmful physical and mental effects on individuals. There have been calls for more research on ageism and its measurement tools to continuously evaluate the psychometric quality and construct validity of ageism scales. Therefore, the primary purpose of the current research was to replicate previous work related to the construct validity and factorial composition of the Fraboni Scale of Ageism, a commonly applied instrument measuring ageist attitudes. Factor analyses on a new, representative U.S. sample supported the FSA's multidimensionality. However, they revealed inconsistencies in the composition of items falling into these factors compared to the 2005 version of the instrument. Specifically, the findings of this research indicated a somewhat contrasting clustering of items than that of the original (1990) and revised (2005) versions of the instrument. In addition to these findings, younger individuals had higher ageism scores than older individuals, and men had higher ageism scores than women, reiterating findings of prior research and posited theory on ageist attitudes. Practical and theoretical implications of these conclusions are discussed, including the notion of moving toward the application of measures that capture more modern, contemporary ageism theory as opposed to older measures grounded in outdated theoretical frameworks. From a practical perspective, this research could also have implications on organizational intervention design related to factors like organizational climate, culture, or DE&I that can potentially contribute to addressing ageism.
Recommended Citation
Girardot, Reagan Elizabeth, "" (2024). Dissertation. 1024.
https://digitalcommons.latech.edu/dissertations/1024