Using an age-friendly university lens to explore community member engagement during the pandemic.

The COVID-19 global pandemic forced institutions of higher education to adapt quickly to virtual connection platforms to maintain ties with their learners. After transitioning to virtual programming, the number of participants in our lifelong learning program more than quadrupled. As a member of the Age-Friendly University (AFU) global network, we saw this as an opportunity to continue expanding our age-inclusivity efforts and capitalized on this engagement by inviting attendees to participate in a brief online survey related to several of the AFU principles. Respondents requested, although not exclusively, continued virtual access to programming. Results emphasized the need for flexible and diverse access points, supported by age-inclusive campus infrastructure, for continuity in respondents engaging with the university post-pandemic. Our path forward is discussed, highlighting successful strategies by other AFU global partners.

Anti-Ageism for Gerontologists.

We argue that gerontologists are products of our ageist culture and that we both perpetuate ageism and suffer from internalized ageism ourselves. We make ageist comments, deny our own age, fail to teach students to recognize and confront ageism, and use language that otherizes and categorizes older people. Gerontologists are in ideal positions to confront ageism through our scholarly work, teaching, and community engagement. However, we suggest that, despite our deep gerontological knowledge, we do not have enough awareness, knowledge, and skills for taking anti-ageism actions in these arenas of our professional lives. We offer some suggestions for confronting ageism, including self-study, increasing content on ageism in the classroom and beyond, pointing out ageist language and behaviors to colleagues and students, working with diversity, equity and inclusion offices on campus, and giving careful consideration to our research approaches and academic writing. To go forward, we must increase awareness about ageism and gain skills in promoting anti-ageism.

Participation in intergenerational Service-Learning benefits older adults: A brief report.

Most research on intergenerational service-learning has focused on the benefits for college students, with fewer studies examining the benefits to older adults. The present study was designed to assess the impact on older adults of participating in Working Together: Intergenerational Student/Senior Exchange, a brief intergenerational service-learning program that brings together college students and older adults as equal partners to promote intergenerational understanding and communication. Older adults from an assisted living community met up to six times with students enrolled in aging-related courses to discuss a variety of topics and get to know one another. Results showed brief intergenerational service-learning benefits older adults with significant increases in generativity from pre-to post-program assessment. Additionally, a large percentage of the participants expressed interest in participating again and a willingness to refer others to the program. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Coalition building to create an Age-Friendly University (AFU).

There is no single path to becoming an Age-Friendly University (AFU). This paper shares the story of one regional, public university that became the first in its state to join the AFU global network. We discuss how early efforts at coalition building both within and outside the university facilitated the campus-wide endorsement of the AFU principles. We highlight several partnerships and programs that reflect the AFU principles and discuss how becoming an AFU helped to further strengthen university ties and is now providing a valuable framework for continued collaboration and coalition building. We share lessons from our efforts, including the challenges and benefits of being the first AFU in our state as we forge a path forward. We conclude with our plans for ensuring the growth of age-friendly practices and policies at our university, and we hope that this paper will encourage you to do the same on your campus.

Bridging the generation gap: Intergenerational service-learning benefits young and old.

Intergenerational service-learning is commonly used in aging courses. Although benefits are well documented for college students, fewer studies have examined benefits for older adults. This article discusses the development and implementation of an intergenerational program designed as a brief service-learning experience to reduce age-related stereotypes and increase generativity in older adults. Young adults enrolled in an aging course and older adults from a local assisted-living community met three times to discuss a variety of topics and get to know one another. Results showed a significant reduction in ageism on the Fraboni Scale of Ageism for young adults. Descriptive data suggested an increase in generativity on the Loyola Generativity Scale for older adults. Qualitative data suggested that all participants gained a greater appreciation for one another and recognized how much they had in common. Limitations, challenges, and lessons learned are also discussed. Intergenerational service-learning, even in small doses, shows promise for bridging the generation gap.

Sadness prediction and response: effects of age and agreeableness.

Research has suggested that both age and personality play a role in emotional experience and regulation, but these variables have not been considered together to determine the relative contribution of each. This study simultaneously examined age and agreeableness differences in the experience of sad stimuli. Participants were 46 younger adults (age, M = 22.04 years, SD = 5.41 years) and 48 older adults (age, M = 74.23, SD = 7.82 years). Participants were asked to predict how sad stimuli (i.e., sad photos) would make them feel and were then measured on their actual reaction to the stimuli (reactivity) as well as on their emotional recovery. Agreeableness, but not age, was related to predicted levels of sadness, such that the more agreeable, the higher the predicted sadness (beta = 0.37). In contrast to expectations, prediction accuracy was not related to age or agreeableness. For emotional reactivity, agreeableness (beta = 0.16), but not age, was related to reactivity to sad stimuli (i.e., more agreeable, higher reactivity). Finally, age (beta = 0.14) was significantly related to emotional recovery such that the older adults reported lower levels of sadness at posttest than did the younger adults. Similarly, people who were more agreeable also reported better emotional recovery (beta = 0.15). These relationships were not affected by depression or pretest sadness ratings. Overall, these findings suggest distinct roles for age and agreeableness in predicting different components of the emotion regulation process. An individual with advanced age, high levels of agreeableness, or both may be well-positioned for resilience throughout the emotion regulation process.

Strategy use mediates the relationship between control beliefs and memory performance for middle-aged and older adults.

We examined whether the relationship between control beliefs and memory performance varied for young, middle-aged, and older adults and whether strategy use mediated this relationship. Participants were 335 adults, ages 21 to 83, who had been recruited from local probability samples. We used structural equation modeling to test the predicted model and compare it by age group (young, middle-aged, and older adults). As expected, control beliefs were related to memory performance on a word list recall task for middle-aged and older adults, but not for younger adults. An analysis of indirect effects revealed that strategy use partially mediated this relationship. Specifically, middle-aged and older adults who perceived greater control over cognitive functioning were more likely to categorize the words and had better recall performance.

Gender, Race, and Age: The Content of Compound Stereotypes Across the Life Span.

While stereotypes about gender, race, and age (particularly old age) have been studied independently, few have examined the content of compound stereotypes that consider the intersection of gender, race, and age. Using a within-subjects design, we examined stereotypes as a function of target gender (male, female), race (Black, White), and age across the life span (adolescent, young adult, middle-aged, young-old, and old-old). Participants rated 20 target groups on 10 attributes representative of either an agentic (e.g., ambitious) or communal (e.g., considerate) orientation. Participants were presented only with categorical information (e.g., Black, 85-year-old, males), and ordering of categorical information and target groups was counterbalanced across participants. We hypothesized differential effects of target gender and race as a function of age. Multivariate analyses of variance on each attribute revealed significant main effects that supported traditional stereotype research, but significant interactions revealed a more complicated picture. Overall, results showed that while gender stereotypes about agency and communion generally hold up across the life span, they are more applicable to White than Black targets. Results also supported the notion that we hold unique stereotypes based on multiple social categories rather than simply perceiving one social category as more salient than another, which was best exemplified in the case of Black female targets that were less likely to be perceived in gender stereotypic ways across the life span. We suggest stereotype research needs to shift to accommodate for the complexity and diversity of real people.

Age differences in the relationship between anxiety and recall.

The present study examined the relationship between anxiety and recall performance as well as whether this association varied by age. One hundred and ninety-five young, middle-aged, and older adults studied and recalled a list of 30 categorizable words. Anxiety was measured before memory testing using a cognitive-specific anxiety measure (PIC) and after testing with a state measure (STAI). Based on previous research it was expected that older adults would show more anxiety related to cognitive testing than younger adults, but our results revealed no significant age differences in anxiety. There was, however, a negative relationship between cognitive-specific anxiety and memory, such that greater anxiety was related to poorer recall, but this was so only for middle-aged and older adults. This suggests that middle-aged and older adults may be more influenced by anticipatory cognitive-specific anxiety than younger adults. Although many factors may contribute to memory decline, our results suggest that managing anxiety may be a promising avenue for minimizing episodic memory problems in later life.

Susceptibility and resilience to memory aging stereotypes: education matters more than age.

The authors examined whether the memory performance of young, middle-aged, and older adults would be influenced by stereotype versus counterstereotype information about age differences on a memory task. One hundred forty-nine adults from a probability sample were randomly assigned to a control group or to age-stereotype conditions. As predicted, counterstereotype information was related to higher recall compared to stereotype and control groups. This was true across all age groups, but only for those with more education. Both stereotype and counterstereotype information were related to lower recall compared to the control group across age groups for those with lower education. Results suggest those with more education are more resilient when faced with negative age stereotypes about memory and respond positively to counterstereotype information. In contrast, those with less education show greater susceptibility to the detrimental effects of age stereotypes and respond negatively to both stereotype and counterstereotype information about memory aging.

Trait impressions as overgeneralized responses to adaptively significant facial qualities: evidence from connectionist modeling.

Connectionist modeling experiments tested anomalous-face and baby-face overgeneralization hypotheses proposed to explain consensual trait impressions of faces. Activation of a neural network unit trained to respond to anomalous faces predicted impressions of normal adult faces varying in attractiveness as well as several elderly stereotypes. Activation of a neural network unit trained to respond to babies' faces predicted impressions of adults varying in babyfaceness as well as 1 elderly stereotype. Thus, similarities of normal adult faces to anomalous faces or babies' faces contribute to impressions of them quite apart from knowledge of overlapping social stereotypes. The evolutionary importance of appropriate responses to unfit individuals or babies is presumed to produce a strong response preparedness that is overgeneralized to faces resembling the unfit or babies.