Testing a Conceptual Model of Age, Gender, Perceived Discrimination and Well-Being

Abstract

Both age and gender are personal characteristics that are at least in part outwardly visible and act as a category for social judgments (Cuddy & Fiske, 2002). The current study examined associations among individuals’ views on their aging, their gender typicality, well-being, and perceived discrimination. Research Question 1 asked whether views on aging and gender typicality interact to influence perceptions of discrimination; Research Question 2 explored the same potential interactions’ influence on well-being. Research Question 3 explored whether any interaction between views on aging and gender typicality and well-being was mediated by perceptions of discrimination. Participants represented the adult life span from ages 40-93(M = 53.43, N = 616) and were comprised of 56% women, and 85% White participants. Data was collected online via Prolific using self-report measures sent to their panelists. Results from Research Question 1 yielded two significant interactions. In the significant interaction between aging-related cognitions and gender roles and expectations, for participants who reported highly-gender-typical gender roles and expectations, those who also reported less positive aging-related cognitions reported more perceived discrimination, while those who reported more positive aging-related cognitions reported less perceived discrimination. In the second significant interaction for Research Question 1 between self-perceptions of aging and gender roles and expectations, if participants reported less positive self-perceptions of aging, they also reported worse discrimination, which was amplified for those who had lower levels of gender typicality. Results from Research Question 2 yielded one significant interaction between subjective age and gender self-concept; for participants who reported highly gender-typical gender self-concept, subjective age was less impactful on their well-being than for those who reported low gender-typical gender self-concept. For those individuals, a more positive subjective age (feeling younger than one’s chronological age) was associated with better well-being, and a more negative subjective age (feeling older than one’s chronological age) was associated with worse well-being. Results from Research Question 3 supported the hypothesis that there would be important links among all of these key variables, such that views on aging and gender typicality would interact to influence well-being, with perceptions of discrimination acting as a mediating variable; numerous significant associations supported this hypothesis. Despite important limitations, all hypotheses were partially supported, and future work should consider creating new measurements of gender that are not subject to the gender binary to measure gender in a more nuanced way. This work suggests that there are important associations among views on aging, gender

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