Internalised Ageism and Self-Exclusion: Does Feeling Old and Health Pessimism Make Individuals Want to Retire Early?
An important current policy goal in many Western countries is for individuals to extend their working lives. Ageism has been identified as a possible threat to achieving this; furthermore, the ways in which ageism may affect this policy goal may have been underestimated. It has been claimed previous...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cogitatio
2019-07-01
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| Series: | Social Inclusion |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/1865 |
| _version_ | 1828523286658547712 |
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| author | Mariska van der Horst |
| author_facet | Mariska van der Horst |
| author_sort | Mariska van der Horst |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | An important current policy goal in many Western countries is for individuals to extend their working lives. Ageism has been identified as a possible threat to achieving this; furthermore, the ways in which ageism may affect this policy goal may have been underestimated. It has been claimed previously that ageism can be seen as discrimination against one’s future self and that a lifetime of internalising age stereotypes makes older people themselves believe the age stereotypes. The current article uses the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to assess the degree to which internalised ageism is related to one’s preferred retirement age. For internalised ageism, assessments are made about the degree to which individuals consider themselves to be old; they agree that their age prevents them from undertaking activities; they are pessimistic about their own future health and that being old comes with deteriorating health more generally. Results show that health pessimism especially affects one’s preferred retirement age negatively, even when controlling for current health and other factors, and mainly for middle-educated women. Implications are discussed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T20:24:52Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fb165fdb42084da696c29e1e4355af08 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2183-2803 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T20:24:52Z |
| publishDate | 2019-07-01 |
| publisher | Cogitatio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Social Inclusion |
| spelling | doaj.art-fb165fdb42084da696c29e1e4355af082022-12-22T00:51:59ZengCogitatioSocial Inclusion2183-28032019-07-0173274310.17645/si.v7i3.18651105Internalised Ageism and Self-Exclusion: Does Feeling Old and Health Pessimism Make Individuals Want to Retire Early?Mariska van der Horst0Department of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The NetherlandsAn important current policy goal in many Western countries is for individuals to extend their working lives. Ageism has been identified as a possible threat to achieving this; furthermore, the ways in which ageism may affect this policy goal may have been underestimated. It has been claimed previously that ageism can be seen as discrimination against one’s future self and that a lifetime of internalising age stereotypes makes older people themselves believe the age stereotypes. The current article uses the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to assess the degree to which internalised ageism is related to one’s preferred retirement age. For internalised ageism, assessments are made about the degree to which individuals consider themselves to be old; they agree that their age prevents them from undertaking activities; they are pessimistic about their own future health and that being old comes with deteriorating health more generally. Results show that health pessimism especially affects one’s preferred retirement age negatively, even when controlling for current health and other factors, and mainly for middle-educated women. Implications are discussed.https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/1865ageismeducational levelgenderhealth pessimisminternalised ageismolder workerretirementretirement agestereotypesUK |
| spellingShingle | Mariska van der Horst Internalised Ageism and Self-Exclusion: Does Feeling Old and Health Pessimism Make Individuals Want to Retire Early? Social Inclusion ageism educational level gender health pessimism internalised ageism older worker retirement retirement age stereotypes UK |
| title | Internalised Ageism and Self-Exclusion: Does Feeling Old and Health Pessimism Make Individuals Want to Retire Early? |
| title_full | Internalised Ageism and Self-Exclusion: Does Feeling Old and Health Pessimism Make Individuals Want to Retire Early? |
| title_fullStr | Internalised Ageism and Self-Exclusion: Does Feeling Old and Health Pessimism Make Individuals Want to Retire Early? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Internalised Ageism and Self-Exclusion: Does Feeling Old and Health Pessimism Make Individuals Want to Retire Early? |
| title_short | Internalised Ageism and Self-Exclusion: Does Feeling Old and Health Pessimism Make Individuals Want to Retire Early? |
| title_sort | internalised ageism and self exclusion does feeling old and health pessimism make individuals want to retire early |
| topic | ageism educational level gender health pessimism internalised ageism older worker retirement retirement age stereotypes UK |
| url | https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/1865 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mariskavanderhorst internalisedageismandselfexclusiondoesfeelingoldandhealthpessimismmakeindividualswanttoretireearly |