Molden Joie, Maxfield Molly
Department of Psychology, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO 80918 USA.
Eur J Ageing. 2016 May 18;14(1):29-37. doi: 10.1007/s10433-016-0378-z. eCollection 2017 Mar.
Dementia worry, an anxiety-related response to the possibility of developing dementia, represents an important yet underexplored health concern for an aging population. Such a construct is likely impacted by stereotypes concerning aging, including biased associations of aging with inevitable cognitive decline. The present article explores the impact of mixed positive and negative aging stereotype messages on levels of dementia worry. The Fear of Alzheimer's Disease Scale (FADS) was used to measure impact of priming with different proportions of positive and negative aging stereotype words. The priming intervention was modeled after Levy (J Pers Soc Psychol 71:1092-1107, 1996, doi:10.1037/0022-3514.71.6.1092). Eighty older adult participants ( = 71.65, SD = 6.57) were exposed to mostly positive aging stereotype words, half positive/half negative words, mostly negative words, all negative words, or non-stereotype words. Mean FADS item response was significantly impacted by priming such that those in the all negative condition had highest levels of dementia worry, (4, 75) = 2.48, = .05, [Formula: see text]. This effect was strengthened when relevance of aging stereotypes was controlled for, < .01. Results suggested that brief exposure to negative aging stereotype content increased levels of dementia worry, particularly when stereotypes were self-relevant. These findings indicate addressing aging stereotypes may be one way of impacting dementia worry.
痴呆症担忧是一种与焦虑相关的对患痴呆症可能性的反应，对于老龄化人口来说，这是一个重要但尚未得到充分探索的健康问题。这样一种概念很可能受到有关衰老的刻板印象的影响，包括将衰老与不可避免的认知衰退联系起来的偏见。本文探讨了积极和消极的衰老刻板印象混合信息对痴呆症担忧程度的影响。使用阿尔茨海默病恐惧量表（FADS）来测量用不同比例的积极和消极衰老刻板印象词汇进行启动的影响。启动干预是仿照利维（《人格与社会心理学杂志》71:1092 - 1107，1996，doi:10.1037/0022 - 3514.71.6.1092）进行的。80名老年参与者（平均年龄 = 71.65，标准差 = 6.57）接触到的主要是积极的衰老刻板印象词汇、正负词汇各半、主要是消极词汇、全是消极词汇或非刻板印象词汇。启动显著影响了FADS项目的平均反应，使得处于全是消极词汇条件下的参与者痴呆症担忧程度最高，F(4, 75) = 2.48，p = 0.05，[公式：见原文]。当控制了衰老刻板印象的相关性时，这种效应得到了加强，p < 0.01。结果表明，短暂接触消极的衰老刻板印象内容会增加痴呆症担忧程度，尤其是当刻板印象与自身相关时。这些发现表明，解决衰老刻板印象可能是影响痴呆症担忧的一种方式。
