Lasher K P, Faulkender P J
Department of Psychology, University of South Mississippi, Hattiesburg 39406-5025.
Int J Aging Hum Dev. 1993;37(4):247-59. doi: 10.2190/1U69-9AU2-V6LH-9Y1L.
This research is based on the premise that aging anxiety is an important mediating factor in attitudes and behavior toward elderly individuals as well as a mediating factor in adjustment to one's own aging processes. The combined concern and anticipation of losses centered around the aging process constitute aging anxiety. This article proposes a multidimensional aging anxiety model, develops a measurement of this model, and assesses the factorial validity of the model. The original eighty-four item Anxiety about Aging Scale (AAS) was developed to assess four dimensions of aging and three types of fears. A principal components analysis of data collected from 312 adult volunteers revealed the presence of four interpretable factors: 1) Fear of Old People, 2) Psychological Concerns, 3) Physical Appearance, and 4) Fear of Loss. Items were eliminated to strengthen this factor structure and resulted in the retention of twenty items. Men were significantly more anxious about aging than were women on the AAS. Correlates of the four factors and implications for further research are discussed.
衰老焦虑是对老年人态度和行为的一个重要中介因素，也是个体适应自身衰老过程的一个中介因素。围绕衰老过程的对损失的综合担忧和预期构成了衰老焦虑。本文提出了一个多维衰老焦虑模型，开发了该模型的测量方法，并评估了该模型的因子效度。最初的84项衰老焦虑量表（AAS）旨在评估衰老的四个维度和三种恐惧类型。对从312名成年志愿者收集的数据进行主成分分析，揭示了四个可解释的因素：1）对老年人的恐惧，2）心理担忧，3）外貌，4）对损失的恐惧。通过删除项目来强化这一因素结构，最终保留了20个项目。在AAS上，男性比女性对衰老的焦虑明显更高。讨论了这四个因素的相关因素以及对进一步研究的启示。
