Expanding Benevolent Ageism: Replicating Attitudes of Overaccommodation to Older Men

Background: Older adults are stereotyped in a paternalistic manner (warm, but incompetent), deserving of assistance regardless of their need; however, little is known about how gender contextualizes these attitudes. The purpose of this study was to extend previous work that examined the malleability of the paternalistic older adult stereotype using a two-part experimental vignette. The goals of the current study included: (1) to examine attitudes of benevolent ageist behavior toward a male target, (2) to confirm whether attributions made toward an older male target change if they defy or confirm the paternalistic stereotype, and (3) to examine the distinct roles of age and gender on an act of benevolent ageism. Method: In prior work, a female target was offered unnecessary assistance, which is replicated in the current study with a male target. The age (young vs. old), response (accepting vs. declining assistance), and gender (male vs. female) of the target were manipulated and then rated by a young adult sample (N = 698). Results: Our findings replicated earlier work in that overaccommodative behaviors were endorsed more so for the older target than the younger target, which corroborates support for the Stereotype Content Model in that older adults are viewed paternalistically. Additionally, the older male target and the older female target were viewed differently when they respectively defied the paternalistic stereotype indicating distinctness between benevolent ageism and benevolent sexism. Conclusions: These findings add to the growing body of benevolent ageism literature and highlight the intersection of gender and age.

Age Differences in Sexual Minority Stress and the Importance of Friendship in Later Life

OBJECTIVES

This study examined whether younger and middle-aged and older sexual minorities (YSM, MAOSM) experience minority stress differently in relation to social support and depressive symptomatology.

METHODS

Cross-sectional data from 238 sexual minorities (18-80; M = 40.93) comprised the sample, who were strategically separated into cohorts. Group difference and regression methods were used to examine differences in minority stress between groups and the relationships between minority stress-social support-depressive symptomatology within groups.

RESULTS

MAOSM had greater outness and lower IH. Additionally, outness and IH were the best predictors for the MAOSM and YSM group, respectively. MAOSM indicated better adaption to minority stresses, highlighting the importance of friend support as a protective mechanism.

CONCLUSIONS

The minority stress-depressive symptomatology is mitigated by friend support in MAOSM.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

OSM and YSM demonstrate different susceptibility of minority stress on depressive symptomatology, with outness being a stronger indicator in MAOSM and IH being a stronger predictor in YSM. Social support does not work uniformly in different cohorts; however, multiple sources (i.e., family, friends) should be discussed with clients. Clinicians should treat cohort as one of the defining features of a sexual minority's lifelong experience with minority stress.

Minority Stress and Relationship Well-Being in Sexual Minorities: The Varying Role of Outness on Relationship and Sexual Satisfaction

Objectives: Empirical inquiry has targeted how same-sex couples grapple with unique stressors in their romantic relationships. Meta-analyses demonstrate that the adverse link between minority stress and sexual and relationship well-being is contingent on the type of stressor and relationship component. Methods: We conducted a cross sectional study examining a sample of 238 individuals currently in same-sex relationships. Results: Outness predicted relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and sexual dissatisfaction relative to other stressors, and depressive symptomatology mediated the minority stressors and relationship well-being associations. Conclusions: The current findings offer practical applications for practitioners working with sexual minority clients and researchers who continue to reveal the boundaries in the minority stress process.

Age Differences in Preferences for Fear-Enhancing Vs. Fear-Reducing News in a Disease Outbreak

Older adults (OA) prefer positive over negative information in a lab setting, compared to young adults (YA; i.e., positivity effects). The extent to which OA avoid negative events or information relevant for their health and safety is not clear. We first investigated age differences in preferences for fear-enhancing vs. fear-reducing news articles during the Ebola Outbreak of 2014. We were able to collect data from 15 YA and 13 OA during this acute health event. Compared to YA, OA were more likely to read the fear-enhancing article, select hand-sanitizer over lip balm, and reported greater fear of Ebola. We further investigated our research question during the COVID-19 pandemic with 164 YA (18-30 years) and 171 OA (60-80 years). Participants responded to an online survey about the COVID-19 pandemic across 13 days during the initial peak of the pandemic in the United States (U.S.). Both YA and OA preferred to read positive over negative news about the coronavirus, but OA were even more likely than YA to prefer the positive news article. No age differences in the fear of contraction were found, but OA engaged in more health-protective behaviors compared to YA. Although OA may not always report greater fear than YA or seek out negative information related to a health concern, they still engage in protective health behaviors. Thus, although positivity effects were observed in attention and emotional reports (in the COVID-19 study), OA still modified their behaviors more than YA (giveaway in both studies, and health-protective behavior change in the COVID-19 study), suggesting that positivity effects did not hamper OA ability to respond to a health crisis.

Ageism and Behavior Change During a Health Pandemic: A Preregistered Study

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a suspected surge of ageism in America and has imposed critical health and safety behavior modifications for people of all ages (Ayalon et al., 2020; Lichtenstein, 2020). Given that older adults are a high-risk group, maintaining their safety has been paramount in implementing preventive measures (i.e., more handwashing, social distancing); however, making such behavior modifications might be contingent on how one views older adults (i.e., ageist stereotypes). Therefore, the goal of the current pre-registered study was to explore if hostile and benevolent ageism relate to pandemic-related fear and behavior change. An online survey assessing responses to the pandemic was taken by 164 younger and 171 older adults. Higher hostile ageism predicted lower pandemic-related behavior modification. Those high in benevolent ageism reported lower behavior change, but also reported higher pandemic-related fear; however, when pandemic-related fear was considered a mediator between the two, the directionality between benevolent ageism and behavior change switched, indicating a suppression effect. These findings highlight that ageist attitudes do predict responses to the pandemic and that hostile and benevolent ageism are distinct facets that have unique implications during a health pandemic.

Benevolent ageism: Attitudes of overaccommodative behavior toward older women

Stereotypes of older adults fit a paternalistic pattern, including elevated warmth and lowered competence, yet little effort has been made to elucidate this in an everyday context. This phenomenon was examined with an experimental vignette, in which a woman was offered unnecessary help; specifically, the age (young vs. old) and the independence (accepting vs. declining assistance) of the woman were manipulated. Attributions from a college-age sample toward the woman were examined. In the older conditions, hypotheses were confirmed that participants approved overaccommodative behaviors, endorsed higher warmth and lower competence, and attitudes were modified when the older women contradicted the paternalistic stereotype by declining assistance. That is, competence was modifiable for older women, whereas warmth was not. Implications of these findings as possible evidence of benevolent ageism and the malleability of the Stereotype Content Model are discussed.

EXPLORING HOW AGE PREDICTS OUTNESS AND INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA IN A LIFESPAN SAMPLE OF SEXUAL MINORITIES

Minority Stress Theory posits that specific minority stressors, such as internalized homophobia and outness, predict negative health outcomes in sexual minorities. There has been substantial work in addressing these stressors in young adult samples; however, less in known about older adults. Older sexual minorities were socialized in a time in which same-sex relations were considered deviant and illegal, and therefore, have been exposed to a lifetime of marginalization. Although there is evidence that minority stressors negatively impact health in older adults, many studies exclude a complete lifespan sample. The goal of this study was to collect a sample of individuals in same-sex relationships ranging in age from 18-80 (N = 228, M = 40.93, SD = 15.87) and examine whether age correlates with outness and internalized homophobia. We found that older participants had higher degrees of outness (r = .21, p < .01) and less internalized homophobia (r = -.20, p < .01) resulting in less overall minority stress. We also analyzed different social resources that might explain the age-related decrease in minority stress and found that age was related to higher self-esteem (r = .24, p < .01). We tested whether self-esteem moderated the direct relationships between age and the minority stressors and found a significant interaction for internalized homophobia (B = .0175, p < .01), but not outness. Our findings provide support that older sexual minorities report less minority stress and more research is needed to explain what promotes these trends.

Growth of a leguminous tree (Centrolobium tomentosum Guill. ex Benth.) inoculated with Rhizobium and mycorrhizal fungi

Leguminous trees are being suggested for revegetation programs due to their ability to develop associations with rhizobia and mycorrhizal fungi. The growth of a native species of the Tropical Atlantic Forest, Centrolobium tomentosum, was evaluated in a native forest soil and in a Eucalyptus forest soil under different treatments of inoculation. C. tomentosum produced more biomass under nursery conditions after inoculation with Rhizobium BHICB-Ab1 associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM). This treatment improved shoot and root growth and nodule weight under forest soil condition, while in eucalyptus soil only shoot biomass and nodule weight were significantly modified. In another experiment, using forest soil, height and stem diameter were also increased by dual inoculation procedures. The height and diameter growth promoting effect was observed when BHICB-Ab1 was used as inoculant associated with AM, but not with BHICB-Ab1 alone. In contrast, plants inoculated with BHICB-Ab3 alone were similar in height and diameter growth, to those which were inoculated with BHICB-Ab3 associated with AM. These results suggest that benefits of dual inoculation depend on triparty symbiosis and especially on the choice of Rhizobium strain.