IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eujoag/v20y2023i1d10.1007_s10433-023-00790-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do we all perceive experiences of age discrimination in the same way? Cross-cultural differences in perceived age discrimination and its association with life satisfaction

Author

Listed:
  • M. Clara P. de Paula Couto

    (Friedrich Schiller University Jena)

  • Jana Nikitin

    (University of Vienna)

  • Sylvie Graf

    (Czech Academy of Sciences)

  • Helene H. Fung

    (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

  • Thomas M. Hess

    (North Carolina State University)

  • Shyhnan Liou

    (National Cheng Kung University)

  • Klaus Rothermund

    (Friedrich Schiller University Jena)

Abstract

Age discrimination is pervasive in most societies and bears far-reaching consequences for individuals’ psychological well-being. Despite that, studies that examine cross-cultural differences in age discrimination are still lacking. Likewise, whether the detrimental association between age discrimination and psychological well-being varies across contexts remains an open question. In this study, therefore, we examined cross-cultural differences in perceived experiences of age discrimination and their detrimental association with a specific indicator of psychological well-being, which is life satisfaction. The sample was drawn from the Ageing as Future study and comprised 1653 older adults (60–90 years) from the Czech Republic, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the USA. Participants self-reported their experiences of age discrimination and their life satisfaction. Findings indicated that participants from Hong Kong and Taiwan reported experiences of perceived age discrimination more often than participants from the Czech Republic, Germany, and the USA. Furthermore, experiences of age discrimination were negatively associated with life satisfaction. Cultural context moderated this relation: We found a smaller detrimental association between perceived experiences of age discrimination and life satisfaction in Eastern cultures, that is, in contexts where such experiences were perceived to be more prevalent. These findings highlight the importance of examining age discrimination across cultures. Experiences of age discrimination are clearly undesirable in that they negatively affect psychological well-being. Our results indicate that a higher self-reported prevalence of perceived age discrimination in the samples studied weakens this negative association. We discuss these findings in terms of adaptation (versus sensitization) in response to discrimination.

Suggested Citation

  • M. Clara P. de Paula Couto & Jana Nikitin & Sylvie Graf & Helene H. Fung & Thomas M. Hess & Shyhnan Liou & Klaus Rothermund, 2023. "Do we all perceive experiences of age discrimination in the same way? Cross-cultural differences in perceived age discrimination and its association with life satisfaction," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:20:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s10433-023-00790-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10433-023-00790-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10433-023-00790-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10433-023-00790-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liat Ayalon & Klaus Rothermund, 2018. "Examining the utility of national indicators of relative age disadvantage in Europe," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 189-197, June.
    2. Catherine E. Harnois & João L. Bastos & Salma Shariff-Marco, 2022. "Intersectionality, Contextual Specificity, and Everyday Discrimination: Assessing the Difficulty Associated With Identifying a Main Reason for Discrimination Among Racial/Ethnic Minority Respondents," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 51(3), pages 983-1013, August.
    3. Christin-Melanie Vauclair & Sibila Marques & Maria L. Lima & Christopher Bratt & Hannah J. Swift & Dominic Abrams, 2015. "Subjective Social Status of Older People Across Countries: The Role of Modernization and Employment," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 70(4), pages 650-660.
    4. repec:plo:pone00:0220857 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Alison L Chasteen & Michelle Horhota & Jessica J Crumley-Branyon & Derek Isaacowitz, 2021. "Overlooked and Underestimated: Experiences of Ageism in Young, Middle-Aged, and Older Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 76(7), pages 1323-1328.
    6. Tetyana P Shippee & Lindsay R Wilkinson & Markus H Schafer & Nathan D Shippee, 2019. "Long-Term Effects of Age Discrimination on Mental Health: The Role of Perceived Financial Strain," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 74(4), pages 664-674.
    7. Klaus Rothermund & Verena Klusmann & Hannes Zacher & Alexandra M Freund, 2021. "Age Discrimination in the Context of Motivation and Healthy Aging," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 76(Supplemen), pages 167-180.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fiona S. Rupprecht & M. Clara P. Paula Couto & Klaus Rothermund & Jana Nikitin, 2025. "Maintaining a young self-concept: Feeling young or shifting age thresholds?," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-9, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Johanna Cresswell-Smith & Kristian Wahlbeck & Jorid Kalseth, 2022. "Life Conditions as Mediators of Welfare State Effect on Mental Wellbeing among Oldest Old in Europe," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-19, April.
    2. Liat Ayalon, 2020. "Life in a world for all ages: From a utopic idea to reality," Journal of Elder Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 1(1), pages 39-67, June.
    3. Agnes Santha & Emese Emőke Tóth-Batizán, 2024. "Age Discrimination of Senior Citizens in European Countries," Societies, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-14, October.
    4. Gaddis, S. Michael & Quadlin, Natasha & Larsen, Edvard Nergård & Crabtree, Charles & Holbein, John B., 2025. "Missing Results of Discrimination: A Systematically Comparative Meta-Analysis and Re-Examinations of Racial, Gender, and Intersectional Discrimination using Correspondence Audits," SocArXiv nd2y6_v1, Center for Open Science.
    5. Carla Comacchio & Giulia Antolini & Mirella Ruggeri & Marco Colizzi, 2022. "Gender-Oriented Mental Health Prevention: A Reappraisal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-21, January.
    6. Daisuke Kato & Ichiro Kawachi & Naoki Kondo, 2022. "Complex Multimorbidity and Working beyond Retirement Age in Japan: A Prospective Propensity-Matched Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-10, May.
    7. Tim Kuball & Georg Jahn, 2024. "Subjective social status across the past, present, and future: status trajectories of older adults," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Sibila Marques & João Mariano & Joana Mendonça & Wouter De Tavernier & Moritz Hess & Laura Naegele & Filomena Peixeiro & Daniel Martins, 2020. "Determinants of Ageism against Older Adults: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-27, April.
    9. Samuel, Laura J. & Abshire Saylor, Martha & Choe, Monica Y. & Smith Wright, Rhonda & Kim, Boeun & Nkimbeng, Manka & Mena-Carrasco, Fernando & Beak, Jieun & Szanton, Sarah L., 2025. "Financial strain measures and associations with adult health: A systematic literature review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 364(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:20:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s10433-023-00790-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.