Age stereotypes; Age-related stereotype threat; Awareness of age-related change; Physical performance; Subjective age
Abstract :
[en] Age-related stereotype threat-the fear of being judged based on negative age stereotypes-can affect physical performance in older adults. This study postulated that stereotype threat influences sports motor performance and that self-perceptions of aging (SPA), specifically subjective age (SA) and awareness of age-related change (AARC), reinforce this relationship. A total of 86 adults aged 65 and over participated in the study (65-85; M = 72.10, SD = 5.94). Participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental group with stereotype threat or a control group. Physical performance was assessed using the advanced version of the sports motor test for adults. SPA (SA, AARC losses and gains) were measured by self-report. The results indicated that compared to the control situation, stereotype threat did not result in lower performance in individual sports motor domains (coordination, mobility, strength, endurance), but only in total performance. Greater AARC losses predicted lower performance in the strength domain. No moderating effect of SA was observed, but a moderating effect of AARC gains was identified in the coordination domain. Stereotype threat only led to lower performance in interactions with AARC gains and in tasks that required both cognitive and physical components. Our findings show that compared to SA, AARC appears more relevant to stereotype threat and physical performance. Finally, the impact of stereotype threat on motor performance is not universally detrimental, but rather domain-specific and only partially moderated by individual differences in SPA.
Disciplines :
Social & behavioral sciences, psychology: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Author, co-author :
Müller, Anna C ; Faculty of Sport Science, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany. anna.c.mueller@fau.de ; Institute of Psychogerontology, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany. anna.c.mueller@fau.de
W.E. Arnold J.C. McCroskey S.V. Prichard The likert-type scale Today’s Speech 10.1080/01463376709368825
J. Aronson M. Lustina C. Good K. Keough C.M. Steele J. Brown When white men can’t do math: necessary and sufficient factors in stereotype threat J Exp Soc Psychol 35 29 46 10.1006/jesp.1998.1371
S.J. Barber An examination of age-based stereotype threat about cognitive decline: implications for stereotype-threat research and theory development Perspect Psychol Sci 12 62 90 10.1177/1745691616656345
S.J. Barber K. Hamel C. Ketcham K. Lui N. Taylor-Ketcham The effects of stereotype threat on older adults’ walking performance as a function of task difficulty and resource evaluations Psychol Aging 35 250 10.1037/pag0000440
S. Barber V.M. Lenis K. Hamel Awareness of age-related gains and losses and their associations with physical and cognitive function Innov Aging 6 10.1093/geroni/igac059.2007 526
V. Benavent-Caballer A. Sendín-Magdalena J.F. Lisón P. Rosado-Calatayud J.J. Amer-Cuenca P. Salvador-Coloma E. Segura-Ortí Physical factors underlying the Timed “Up and Go” test in older adults Geriatr Nurs 37 122 127 10.1016/j.gerinurse.2015.11.002
L. Borel B. Alescio-Lautier J. Léonard I. Régner Age-based stereotype threat effects on dynamic balance in healthy older adults Front Syst Neurosci 18 1309158 10.3389/fnsys.2024.1309158
J. Bortz Statistik: Für Sozialwissenschaftler Berlin Springer-Verlag
A. Brothers M. Miche H.W. Wahl M. Diehl Examination of associations among three distinct subjective aging constructs and their relevance for predicting developmental correlates J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 72 547 560 10.1093/geronb/gbv085
M.S. Brubaker M. Naveh-Benjamin The effects of stereotype threat on the associative memory deficit of older adults Psychol Aging 33 17 29 10.1037/pag0000194
D.M. Buchner B.J. de Lateur The importance of skeletal muscle strength to physical function in older adults Ann Behav Med 13 3 91 98 10.1093/abm/13.3.91
S. Chiviacowsky P.L. Cardozo A. Chalabaev Age stereotypes’ effects on motor learning in older adults: The impact may not be immediate, but instead delayed Psychol Sport Exerc 36 209 212 10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.02.012
S. Chiviacowsky P.L. Cardozo R. Michael R. Drews K. Harter A. Meurer Age stereotypes’ effects on motor learning in older adults: The impact may not be immediate, but instead delayed Psychol Sport Exerc 36 209 212 10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.02.012
D.J. Deeg E.J. Timmermans A.A. Kok Capturing subjective age, subjective life expectancy, and their links with older adults’ health: the Dutch Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam J Aging Health 33 633 644 10.1177/08982643211004001
M.K. Diehl H.W. Wahl Awareness of age-related change: examination of a (mostly) unexplored concept J Gerontol 64 340 350 10.1093/geronb/gbp110
R.P. Eibach S.E. Mock E.A. Courtney Having a “senior moment”: Induced aging phenomenology, subjective age, and susceptibility to ageist stereotypes J Exp Soc Psychol 46 643 649 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.03.002
M. Emile A. Chalabaev Y. Stephan K. Corrion F. d’Arripe-Longueville Aging stereotypes and active lifestyle: Personal correlates of stereotype internalization and relationships with level of physical activity among older adults Psychol Sport Exerc 15 198 204
F. Faul E. Erdfelder A.G. Lang A. Buchner G*power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences Behav Res Methods 39 175 191 10.3758/BF03193146
Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) (2016) Statistik und Wissenschaft: Demographische Standards Ausgabe 2016. https://www.statistischebibliothek.de/mir/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/DEMonografie_derivate_00001549/Band17_DemographischeStandards1030817169004.pdf
R. Fernández-Ballesteros A. Bustillos C. Huici Positive perception of aging and performance in a memory task: compensating for stereotype threat? Exp Aging Res 41 410 425 10.1080/0361073X.2015.1053757
R. Flesch A new readability yardstick J Appl Psychol 32 221 10.1037/h0057532
J. Fox S. Weisberg D. Adler D. Bates G. Baud-Bovy S. Ellison et al. Package ‘car’. Vienna: R foundation for statistical computing Hum Reprod 16 332 333
C.R. Gale C.N. Martyn C. Cooper A.A. Sayer Grip strength, body composition, and mortality Int J Epidemiol 36 228 235 10.1093/ije/dyl224
L. Geraci R. De Forrest M. Hughes G. Saenz R. Tirso The effect of cognitive testing and feedback on older adults’ subjective age Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 25 333 350 10.1080/13825585.2017.1299853
K. Golle H. Mechling U. Granacher A. Güllich M. Krüger Koordinative Fähigkeiten und Koordinationstraining im Sport [Coordinative abilities and coordination training in sports] Bewegung, Training, Leistung und Gesundheit [movement, training, performance, and health] Berlin, Heidelberg Springer 1 24
J.M. Hausdorff B.R. Levy J.Y. Wei The power of ageism on physical function of older persons: reversibility of age-related gait changes J Am Geriatr Soc 47 1346 1349 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1999.tb07437.x
S. Horton J. Baker W. Pearce J.M. Deakin Immunity to popular stereotypes of aging? Seniors and stereotype threat Educ Gerontol 36 353 371 10.1080/03601270903323976
H. Ihira T. Furuna A. Mizumoto et al. Subjective physical and cognitive age among community-dwelling older people aged 75 years and older: differences with chronological age and its associated factors Aging Ment Health 19 756 761 10.1080/13607863.2014.967169
Jockers ML, Thalken R (2020) Introduction to dplyr. In: Text Analysis with R: For Students of Literature, 121–132. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39643-5_11
R. Kaspar M. Gabrian A. Brothers H.W. Wahl M. Diehl Measuring awareness of age-related change: development of a 10-item short form for use in large-scale surveys Gerontologist 59 e130 e140 10.1093/geront/gnx213
D. Kotter-Grühn T.M. Hess The impact of age stereotypes on self-perceptions of aging across the adult lifespan J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 67 563 571 10.1093/geronb/gbr153
D. Kotter-Grühn A. Kleinspehn-Ammerlahn D. Gerstorf J. Smith Self-perceptions of aging predict mortality and change with approaching death: 16-year longitudinal results from the Berlin Aging Study Psychol Aging 24 654
J. Krell-Rösch S. Tittlbach K. Bös H.D. Kempf Sportmotorischer Test für Erwachsene: Tests für Fitness-Einsteiger und Fortgeschrittene [Sports motor test for adults: tests for fitness beginners and advanced athletes] Funktionelles Training mit Hand- und Kleingeräten: Das Praxisbuch [Functional training with hand and small equipment: The practice book] Berlin Springer Verlag 21 39
R.A. Lamont H.J. Swift D. Abrams A review and meta-analysis of age-based stereotype threat: Negative stereotypes, not facts, do the damage Psychol Aging 30 180 193 10.1037/a0038586
R.S. Lazarus S. Folkman Transactional theory and research on emotions and coping Eur J Pers 1 141 169 10.1002/per.2410010304
R. Lenth M.R. Lenth Package ‘lsmeans’ Am Stat 34 4 216 221
B. Levy Stereotype embodiment: a psychosocial approach to aging Curr Dir Psychol 18 332 336 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01662.x
B.R. Levy L.M. Myers Preventive health behaviors influenced by self-perceptions of aging Prev Med 39 625 629 10.1016/j.ypmed.2004.02.029
B.R. Levy M.D. Slade S.V. Kasl Longitudinal benefit of positive self-perceptions of aging on functional health J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 57 409 417 10.1093/geronb/57.5.P409
B.R. Levy M.D. Slade S.R. Kunkel S.V. Kasl Longevity increased by positive self-perceptions of aging J Pers Soc Psychol 83 261 270 10.1037/0022-3514.83.2.261
J.F. Liu H.M. Lee J.O. Chen et al. Benefits of multiple-intervention pulmonary rehabilitation to older adults with high-risk multimorbidity after coronary artery bypass grafting Healthcare 8 10.3390/healthcare8040368 368
M. Marquet M. Boutaayamou C. Schwartz M. Locquet O. Bruyère J.L. Croisier S. Adam Does negative information about aging influence older adults’ physical performance and subjective age? Arch Gerontol Geriatr 78 181 189 10.1016/j.archger.2018.06.013
A. Middleton G.D. Fulk M.W. Beets T.M. Herter S.L. Fritz Self-selected walking speed is predictive of daily ambulatory activity in older adults J Aging Phys Act 24 214 222 10.1123/japa.2015-0104
G. Moriello J.J. Cotter N. Shook D. Dodd-McCue E.A. Welleford The effect of implicit stereotypes on the physical performance of older adults Educ Gerontol 39 599 612 10.1080/03601277.2012.704241
N. Notthoff J. Drewelies P. Kazanecka et al. Feeling older, walking slower—but only if someone’s watching. Subjective age is associated with walking speed in the laboratory, but not in real life Eur J Ageing 15 425 433 10.1007/s10433-017-0450-3
Revelle W (2011) An overview of the psych package. CRAN Repository.
K. Rothermund M.C.P. de Paula Couto H.H. Fung S. Graf T.M. Hess S. Liou J. Nikitin Age-related attributions of experienced changes in life: origins and implications J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 76 5 881 893 10.1093/geronb/gbaa160
D.C. Rubin D. Berntsen People over forty feel 20% younger than their age: subjective age across the lifespan Psychon Bull Rev 13 776 780 10.3758/BF03193996
S. Sabatini B. Silarova A. Martyr R. Collins C. Ballard K.J. Anstey S. Kim L. Clare Associations of awareness of age-related change with emotional and physical well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis Gerontologist 60 e477 e490 10.1093/geront/gnz101
S. Sabatini O.C. Ukoumunne A. Brothers M.K. Diehl H.W. Wahl C. Ballard R. Collins A. Corbett H. Brooker L. Clare Differences in awareness of positive and negative age-related changes accounting for variability in health outcomes Eur J Ageing 19 1087 1097 10.1007/s10433-021-00673-z
C.A. Sarkisian T.R. Prohaska M.D. Wong S. Hirsch C.M. Mangione The relationship between expectations for aging and physical activity among older adults J Gen Intern Med 20 911 915 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2005.0204.x
M. Shih T.L. Pittinsky N. Ambady Stereotype susceptibility: identity salience and shifts in quantitative performance Psychol Sci 10 80 83 10.1111/1467-9280.00111
A. Shumway-Cook S. Brauer M. Woollacott Predicting the probability for falls in community-dwelling older adults using the timed up & go test Phys Ther 80 896 903 10.1093/ptj/80.9.896
C.M. Steele A threat in the air: how stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance Am Psychol 52 6 613 10.1037/0003-066X.52.6.613
C.M. Steele J. Aronson Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans J Pers Soc Psychol 69 797 811 10.1037/0022-3514.69.5.797
C.M. Steele J. Aronson Stereotype threat and the test performance of academically successful African Americans J Pers Soc Psychol 69 797 10.1037/0022-3514.69.5.797
C.M. Steele S.J. Spencer J. Aronson Contending with group image: the psychology of stereotype and social identity threat Adv Exp Soc Psychol 34 379 440 10.1016/S0065-2601(02)80009-0
N. Steiber Strong or weak handgrip? Normative reference values for the German population across the life course stratified by sex, age, and body height PLoS ONE 11 10.1371/journal.pone.0163917 e0163917
Y. Stephan A. Chalabaev D. Kotter-Grühn A. Jaconelli “Feeling younger, being stronger”: an experimental study of subjective age and physical functioning among older adults J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 68 1 7 10.1093/geronb/gbs037
Y. Stephan A.R. Sutin A. Terracciano Subjective age and personality development: a 10-year study J Pers 83 142 154 10.1111/jopy.12090
H.J. Swift R.A. Lamont D. Abrams Are they half as strong as they used to be? An experiment testing whether age-related social comparisons impair older people’s hand grip strength and persistence BMJ Open 2 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-001064 e001064
J. Wang J. Yu X. Zhao Is subjective age associated with physical fitness in community-dwelling older adults? Int J Environ Res Public Health 19 10.3390/ijerph19116841 6841
M. Wettstein A.E. Kornadt H.W. Wahl Awareness of age-related changes among middle-aged and older adults: Longitudinal trajectories, and the role of age stereotypes and personality traits Front Psychiatry 13 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.902909 902909
H. Wickham ggplot2 Wiley Interdiscip Rev Comput Stat 3 2 180 185 10.1002/wics.147
