Age Discrimination, Gerontostereotypes, and Gerontological Ageism: Cross-Cultural Aspect

Abstract

The intensive ageing of the population in all countries of the world creates problems of ageism, age discrimination, and biased attitude towards older people, which provoke considerable negative consequences both for representatives of this age and for society in general. The study of cross-cultural aspects of these phenomena largely enriches their understanding and is directly related to the search for ways to prevent them in various cultural and socio-economic conditions. The purpose of the study was to theoretically analyse the problem of ageism as a form of age discrimination against older people, in particular its cross-cultural factors, features, and consequences. Methods of theoretical and meta-theoretical level (dialectical method and system analysis method) were used. The study identified key trends related to the ageing process of the entire population. The concept of “ageism” and its content were clarified, the specific features of the concept of “gerontological ageism”, its components, factors and forms of manifestation were determined. Cross-cultural features of ageism manifestations as a form of age discrimination against older people in western and eastern, individualistic and collectivist cultures were considered. For this purpose, international theoretical and empirical models and programmes were analysed, as well as cross-cultural studies of ageism implemented in various cultural contexts (in the USA, Western and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Asia-Pacific region, etc.). The results obtained in the study are of practical importance since they indicate the possibilities of preventing gerontoageism in different countries and at different levels of social life, and above all the prospects for changing negative perceptions and stigmatising ageing in Ukrainian society