AGEISM AT WORK ACROSS THREE GENERATIONS Текст научной статьи по специальности «Науки об образовании»

SOCIO-CULTURAL ISSUES OF MIGRATION AND DEMOGRAPHY

DOI: 10.24411/2470-1262-2019-10067

УДК (UDC) 159.9.072

Tatiana Bugelova, Lena Chupkova, Lenka Kratochvilova, Institute of Psychology of the Faculty of Arts of Presov University in Presov, Slovakia

For citation: Bugelova Tatiana, Chupkova Lena, Kratochvilova Lenka, (2019). Ageism at Work across three Generations. Cross-Cultural Studies: Education and Science. Vol. 4, Issue 4 (2019), pp. 97-106 (in USA)

Manuscript received 29/10/2019 Accepted for publication: 25/11/2019 The authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

CC BY 4.0

AGEISM AT WORK ACROSS THREE GENERATIONS ВОЗРАСТ НА РАБОТЕ ПО ТРЕМ ПОКОЛЕНИЯМ

Abstract

The research study focuses on ageism and its incidence in the workplace. The authors worked with three groups of respondents divided by age to younger employees aged 30 or less, middle aged employees aged 45 or less and older employees aged 62 or more. The aim was to determine the degree of ageism in working-age employees versus elderly workers and vice versa on a sample covering 202 participants in total. Instruments used: The Ambivalent Ageism Scale (Cary, Chasteen & Remedios, 2016) and the so far unpublished scale of attitudes toward employment of elders (Bugelova & Cupkova, 2017). The most intense incidence of ageism and unwillingness to tolerate employment of elders was most noticeable in the group of youngest employees, then in the middle-aged group and, in the last place (as expected), among the elders. Women were significantly more ageist than men. The level of education proved to play an insignificant role in ageist attitudes.

Keywords: ageism; ambivalent ageism; employee; elder

Introduction

We are witnessing a strange phenomenon in the present-day labour market. On one hand, the demand for qualified workers both in Slovakia and Western Europe keeps growing irrespective of the level of qualification and profession and, on the other hand, both employers and younger employees exert more and more pressure on elderly employees to stop working and retreat. Arguments why elders should leave or stay at work are plentiful on both sides. Younger employees believe that elderly workers are less efficient, are unable to keep pace and adapt to new working conditions and processes and, last but not least, there is the argument that elders occupy high-quality job positions and make them inaccessible for younger and more prospective employees. On the side of elders, there is the argument of experience, work history, willingness to help and often also the concern relating to the reduction of their economic standing once they retire and have to financially rely on the pension only. And what do employers think? They're not inclined to keeping elders at work either in spite of their professional qualities, because they are simply too expensive and... old. These conflicts are also extensively nurtured by the mass media which, on one hand, show officials who use optimistic voice when speaking of the growing lifespan of our population and, the next minute, inform how troublesome it is to pay out pensions to a long-living population and how elders "devastate" the state budget with their health and social requirements. Even though we might be exaggerating a bit, the outlined social and economic issues naturally translate into the every-day life of people and can often be very hurtful. One of the serious social phenomena we have come across in recent years in connection with work and employment of elders is the growing, if not proliferating, phenomenon of ageism, i.e. an unfriendly, malicious up to hostile relationship of younger employees toward employed elders and vice versa.

Theoretical Background

The old age is an age category which is associated with ambivalent feelings (Kite & Wagner, 2002). Although majority of people wish to live really long, they often hold hostile attitude toward elders. What is more, the ever preferred youth as a synonym of performance and success sheds a negative light on elderly individuals in the labour market and degrades them in their normal, everyday lives. Tosnerova (2002) says that ageism occurred as the opposite extreme to the youth cult.

"Ageism embraces a vast variety of aversions to elderly people and everything which reminds of the old age. It is frequently manifested through the so-called age discrimination." (Haskovcova, 2012, p. 48). Cary at al. (2016) add that ageism is a multifaceted prejudice that embraces both hostile and benevolent attitudes toward elders. Nevertheless, examples of ageism usually include hostile attitudes and comments (Palmore, 1999). If we speak of negative ageism, it needs to be emphasised that the so-called benevolent ageism cannot be considered to be positive either. Benevolent ageism could be interpreted as a patronizing acceptance of age and tolerance of the "weaknesses and insufficient abilities of elders". Although it comes without any distinct manifestations of hostility, in the end it entails unwillingness up to refusal to engage elders in common activities.

O'Loughlin, Kendig, Hussain and Cannon (2017) observe in their research study that society continues to hold two stereotyped images of elderly workers. One is positive and depicts an elder worker as an experienced team member; the other one is negative and understands elders as those incapable of adapting to changes. Younger workers even often see elderly workers as an obstacle on their career path. Nearly one half (46%) of respondents have stated in their study that the age discrimination is a commonplace phenomenon in Australia. These views were particularly noticeable in the working age category of 35 to 49 years (51%), and in the age category of 50 to 64 years (48%). Cupkova, Bugelova and Fucskova (2019) focused in their research work on the relationship between ambivalent ageism and the attitudes toward the employment of elders. A significant correlation was found in that area. The outcomes of their study show that, statistically, the attitudes to the employment of elders is under significant influence of 4 predictors being the age, living in the same household with an elder, and the degree of hostile and benevolent ageism.

Objective

The primary aim of the paper is to survey the attitudes of employees toward employment of elders and compare them between the young-, middle-, and old-age employees. Further, the study aimed to research the correlation between the ambivalent ageism and the attitudes toward employment of elders. And lastly, we have set an objective to survey the degree of ambivalent ageism depending on education and whether gender has an impact on the attitudes toward employment of elders in the groupw of working age employees.

Research Problem

We have formulated the following research questions in connection with the above objectives:

1. Will there be significant differences in the attitudes toward employment of elders between the working age employees and elders?

2. Will there be a correlation between ambivalent ageism and the attitudes toward employment of elders in working age employees?

3. Will there be differences in the degree of ambivalent ageism depending on the education completed by the working age employees?

4. Will there be gender-related differences in the attitudes toward employment of elders in working age employees?

Instruments

We used our own questionnaire to survey the social and demographic data of our sample. It consists of 6 questions which focus on the sex, age, education completed, actual profession, type of employment, years worked, and a household shared with an elder. The retired elders were asked about their former profession.

We used the Ambivalent Ageism Scale to survey ageism. This scale consists of 13 items and 2 sub-scales - the benevolent and hostile ageism sub-scales (Cary et al., 2016). This scale contains 6-point bipolar scale from 1 to 6, where 1 means completely disagree and 6 completely agree. The

higher the scores, the greater the ambivalent ageism. This scale is one of the first which combines 2 components of ageism. The benevolent ageism scale contains 9 items and researches the attitudes toward elders which seem to be positive but, at the same time, perceive them as incompetent. Here's an example of a benevolent ageism item: "Although elders want to work, they should not be permitted to do so because they are fragile and can easily fall ill."The hostile ageism sub-scale contains 4 items and surveys negative ageist attitudes toward elders. Here's an example of a hostile ageism item: "Elderly people are a burden for the healthcare system and the economy." The results of each of the sub-scales were used in the form of a gross score of the global ambivalent ageism, because we particularly wanted to study the correlation between the total ambivalent ageism and the attitudes toward employment of elders, whether the prejudices to elders were positive or negative. The reliability was verified by calculating the internal consistency coefficient - the Cronbach's alpha, the value of which was a = .769.

The test battery was supplemented with the Attitudes toward Employment of Elders Scale (Bugelova & Cupkova, 2017) which is still being developed. Examples for such an item include: "Working elders are still competent enough to learn new things." This scale contains a 6-point bipolar scale from 1 to 6, where 1 means completely disagree and 6 completely agree. The final gross score was calculated by counting up all items; however, the items No. 3, 5, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17, 20 and 22 needed to be re-coded. The sum of those items results in the highest possible score of ageist attitudes toward employment of elders. The reliability was verified by calculating the internal consistency coefficient - the Cronbach's alpha, the value of which was a = .854.

Research Sample

The research sample consisted of 201 respondents selected by non-random occasional sampling. The respondents had to meet the criterion of age and, if in the working age, also the criterion of employment. We split the working age category to young and middle age categories of employees. The younger age category was defined as workers aged 18 to 30 years (N = 64; average age was 24.98 years; the average number of years worked amounted to 4.21 years); the middle-age category was aged 31 to 45 years (N = 90; average age was 38.26; the average number of years worked totalled 17.48); and elders (N = 47; the average age was 71.47 years) had to meet the criterion of the minimum age of 62 years, which is actually the retirement age in Slovakia (Social Insurance Agency, 2018). Tables 1 and 2 contain the data of respondents from the perspective of their sex and education completed in individual age categories.

Table 1 Distribution of respondents by sex in individual age categories (N = 201)

18-30 years 31-45 years 62+

N Percentage (%) N Percentage (%) N Percentage (%)

Men 27 42.2 48 53.3 16 34.0

Women 37 57.8 42 46.7 31 66.0

Note: N - number of persons

Table 2 Distribution of respondents from the perspective of a household including an elder and

the completed education in individual age categories (N = 201)

18-30 years 31-45 years 62+

N Percentage (%) N Percentage (%) N Percentage (%)

Primary - - 1 1.1 12 25.5

Secondary 47 73.4 69 76.7 32 68.1

University 17 26.6 20 22.2 3 6.4

Note: N - number of persons

Statistical data processing

The data from respondents were collected from December 2017 to March 2018. At the beginning, respondents received instructions on how to complete the questionnaires, information about anonymity and the purpose of the data being collected. The data were processed by the SPSS statistical software, version 20. We applied skewness to test normal data distribution, and the Cronbach alpha to test reliability of both scales. Using descriptive statistics, we described the research sample and then used the statistical inference to verify the hypotheses.

Results

H1: Our assumption was that there would be significant differences in ageist attitudes toward working elders between the selected age categories. We used the non-parametric test for multiple independent samples. The results show that there are significant differences between the younger-age, middle-age generations and elders as to the attitudes toward employment of elders, and we may say that the data provided enough evidence in support of the hypothesis H1. The results are reported in Table 3. The results of the average scores reveal that the youngest generation of employees had most ageist attitudes toward employment of elders.

Table 3 Kruskal Wallis H test results for differences in attitudes toward employment of elders in

the selected age categories (N = 201)

18-30 years 31-45 years 62+

(N = 64) (N = 90) (N = 47)

Mean Rank Mean Rank Mean Rank df Chi-Square Sig.

Attitudes toward

employment of 133.81 96.76 64.45 2 39.448 .000

elders

Note: df - degrees of freedom

H1A: Our assumption was that younger employees would have significantly more ageist attitude toward employment of elders compared with the middle-age generation of employees. We used the non-parametric test for 2 independent samples. The sub-hypothesis was confirmed and reveals that there is a statistically significant difference between younger and middle-age employees, with younger employees having shown significantly greater intolerance to the employment of elders than the middle-age employees. The results are reported in Table 4.

Table 4 Mann Whitney U test results for the difference in attitudes toward employment of elders

in younger and middle-age employees (n = 154)

18-30 years (N = 64) 31-45 years (N = 90) U Sig.

Mean Rank Sum of Ranks Mean Rank Sum of Ranks

Attitudes toward

employment of 94.31 6036 65.54 5899 1804 .000

elders

Note: df - degrees of freedom

H1B: Our assumption was that elders would have significantly less ageist attitude toward employment of elders compared with the middle-age generation of employees. The sub-hypothesis was verified with the help of a non-parametric test for 2 independent samples, and our data provided sufficient evidence for its confirmation. We may say that elders have the most positive attitudes toward employment of elders from among all age categories. The results are reported in Table 4.

Table 4 Mann Whitney U test results for the difference in attitudes toward employment of elders

in middle-age employees and elders (n = 137)

31-45 years (N = 90) 62+ years (N = 47)

Mean Sum of Mean Sum of U Sig.

Rank Ranks Rank Ranks

Attitudes toward

employment of 76.71 6904 54.23 2549 1421 .002

elders

Note: df - degrees of freedom

H2: Our assumption was that there would be a significantly positive correlation between ambivalent ageism and attitudes toward employment of elders in the working age employees (younger and middle-age employees). We verified the hypothesis using the Pearson correlation coefficient and the analysis results indicate a strong positive correlation of statistical significance. Data provided enough evidence to confirm the hypothesis; the results of the analysis are covered by Table 5.

Table 5 Correlation between the attitudes toward employment of elders and the level of

ambivalent ageism (N = 154)

Ambivalent ageism Sig.

Attitudes toward employment .599** .000

of elders

Note: ** means p < .01

H3: Our assumption was that working age employees who completed university education would have significantly lower scores in ambivalent ageism than the employees who completed secondary education. We applied the parametric t test for 2 independent samples to survey the differences between working age employees who completed secondary and those who graduated from universities. The results of the Levene test of variance and, subsequently, the significance value did not reveal significant difference between the samples. The hypothesis was not confirmed (Table 6).

Table 6 Results of the t-test for ambivalent ageism between working age employees who completed secondary or university education (n = 154)

Secondary education University education

(N = 116) (N = 37)

M SD M SD df t Sig.

Ambivalent 43.51 7.72 42.62 7.75 151 .608 .544

ageism

Note: M - mean; SD - standard deviation; df - degrees of freedom; t - testing criterion

H4: Our assumption was that there would be more significant differences between working age men and working age women when it comes to the attitudes toward employment of elders or, more precisely, that women would have less ageist attitudes toward employment of elders than men. We used the non-parametric t-test for 2 independent samples to calculate the results. There are significant differences in attitudes toward employment of elders between employed working age men and women; however, men had less ageist attitudes. The hypothesis was not confirmed; the results are reported in Table 7.

Table 7 Mann Whitney U test results for the sex-related differences in attitudes toward

employment of elders (n = 154)

Men (N = 75) Women (N = 79)

Mean Sum of Mean Rank Sum of Ranks U Sig.

Rank Ranks

Attitudes

toward 67.94 5095.50 86.58 6839.50 2245.50 .009

employment of

elders

Note: df - degrees of freedom

Discussion

Our primary aim was to survey the attitudes of employees toward employment of elders and compare them between the young-, middle-, and old-age employees. Further, we also aimed to find out whether there exist differences in ageism depending on the sex and education in the group of working age respondents. An ancillary aim was to survey the existence of correlation between the attitudes toward employment of elders and ambivalent ageism in the working age employees.

103

The H1 assumed the existence of significant differences in the attitudes toward employment of elders between individual generations of employees. The younger generation had most ageist attitudes toward employment of elders, while the attitudes of the elders were least ageist. Tosnerova (2002) partially explains the incidence of ageist attitudes toward elders in the environment of the Czech Republic referring to the high value of youth. The youth cult is nowadays being asserted also under the influence of mass media which only support these negative attitudes.

The H2 hypothesis assumed that there would be a significantly positive correlation between ambivalent ageism and attitudes toward employment of elders in working age employees. This hypothesis was confirmed as well. The higher scores in ambivalent ageism correlated with the higher scores in ageist attitudes toward employment of elders.

The H3 hypothesis assumed that the degree of ambivalent ageism would be different between working age employees who completed secondary education and those who completed university education, while university graduates were expected to do better. This hypothesis was not confirmed. Although respondents with university education were slightly less ageist compared with those with secondary education, significance was not achieved. However, the results of other research studies support our hypothesis: the study of Tabari, Ghaedi, Hamissi and Eskandari (2015) which dealt with the attitudes toward elders in dentristy students revealed that these students had very positive attitudes toward elders and were very willing to work with them. Those results could indicate that university education might correlate with more positive attitudes toward elders. Also the results of a quasi-experiment of Lee, Shin and Greiner (2015) implied that education could have an influence on more positive attitudes toward elders, but they only reached approximative values.

The H4 hypothesis assumed that there would be more significant differences between working age men and women when it comes to the attitudes toward employment of elders or, more precisely, that women would have more positive attitudes than men. The assumption was not confirmed. Working age women were significantly more ageist toward employment of elders than men, which was surprising to some extent. Similar results were also attained by Kravcakova (2018) in her research work which pointed out significant gender differences in ageist tendencies, and women tended to be more ageist than men. This is partially explained in the research work of Eiamkanchanalaia et al. (2017) who researched the attitudes of female university students toward elders reaching a conclusion that their attitudes toward elders tended to get worse in those who had a duty to take care of elderly people. They believe that the frequency of social interaction was key there and that it was more about social duty which is associated with that interaction and is, somehow automatically, expected from women. This may partially explain the outcome observed by us.

Conclusion

The correlation between ambivalent ageism and attitudes toward employment was confirmed to be significant. This means that ageism, whether the good-hearted or the explicitly hostile one, heads toward rejection of elders at work particularly by the younger generation of employees. Interesting also is the significant result in the working age employees relating to sex where women showed significantly more ageist attitudes toward elders. 104

It follows from the quasi-experiment of Lee at al. (2015) researching the influence of education on the attitudes toward elders that better knowledge about ageing going hand in hand with experience could help improve negative attitudes toward elders. In this context, Cupkova and Bugelova (2017) note: "If we don't want the upcoming demographic and social development to lower the quality of the life of elders, we have to try to better understand their needs. This would also result in better perception of the old age by the elders themselves..." It is very probable (although our research work did not focus on that) that mass media informing of the ageing population and costs that the society spends on elders in the form of pensions, healthcare, etc. influence attitudes toward elderly people and their employment in a manner that we cannot call appropriate.

Nevertheless, it's a matter of fact that neither the working nor the employment sphere avoided ageism. However, we believe that this unfortunate phenomenon cannot be reduced by threatening everyone of ageing population or imposing restrictions or bans on employment of elders. This issue will require more fundamental system changes. The vision that all elders who are employed today would stop working giving way to all young people to find their job is not realistic. The labour market is merciless just like the competitive fight. And every single human has the right to take part in it irrespective of the age and subjective attitude.

References:

1. Bugelova, T., & Cupkova, L. (2018). Dotaznik postojov k zamestnanosti seniorov. Nepublikovany dotaznik. (Attitudes toward the Employment of Elders Questionnaire. Unpublished questionnaire.) Presov: FFPU.

2. Cary, L. A., Chasteen, A. J., & Remedios, J. (2016). The Ambivalent Ageism Scale: Developing and Validating a Scale to Measure Benevolent and Hostile Ageism. The Gerontologist, 0(0), 1-10.

3. Cupkova, L., Bugelova, T., & Fucskova, Z. (2019). Postoje k zamestnanosti seniorov v zavislosti na miere ageizmu. Psychologia prace a organizacie: minulost', pritomnost' a vyzvy do buducnosti - zbornikprispevkov z medzinarodnej konferencie, p. 105-116.

4. Cupkova, L., Bugelova, T. (2018). Ageizmus a jeho vplyv na fungovanie seniora. Zbornik prispevkov z konferencie: Kvalita zivota v kontexte chudoby. (7. - 8. 12. 2018), vyd. Bookman, s r. o. Presov, p. 110-119.

5. Eiamkanchanalai, S., Assarut, N. & Surasiengsunk, S. (2018). Attitude toward the elderly and social interaction: Approach toward an intergenerational society, Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, (39)1, 1-174.

6. Haskovcova, H. (2012). Socalnigerontologie aneb Seniori mezi nami. Praha: Galen.

7. Kite, M. E. & Wagner L. S. (2002). Attitudes towards Older Adults. In Nelson T. D. (Ed). Ageism: Stereotyping andPrejudice against Older Persons (129-163). United States of America: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

8. Kravcakova, G. (2018). Ageizmus vo verejnej sprave. Verejna sprava v sucasnom demokratickom a pravnom state - Recenzovany zbornik prispevkov z medzinarodnej vedeckej konferencie, SafarikPress: Kosice, p. 84-95.

9. Lee, Y. S., Shin, S. H., & Greiner, P. A. (2015). Can education change attitudes toward aging? A quasi-experimental design with a comparison group. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, (5)9, 90-99.

10. O'Loughlin, K., Kendig H., Hussain, R. & Cannon, L. (2017). Ageism Feature. Australian Journal of Ageing, 36(2), 98-101.

11. Tosnerova, T. (2002). Ageismus. Pruvodce stereotypy a myty a start. Praha: Ambulance pro poruchy pameti.

12. Palmore, E. B. (1999). Ageism: Negative andPositive, New York: Springer Publishing Company Inc.

13. Socialna poisfovna. (2018). Dochodkovy vek v roku 2017 a 2018. Retrieved April 18, 2018 from https://www.socpoi st.sk/dochodkovy-vek-v-roku-2017/62961s

14. Tosnerova, T. (2002). Ageismus. Pruvodce stereotypy a myty a start. Praha: Ambulance pro poruchy pameti.

Information about the authors:

Doc. PhDr. Tat'jana Bugelova, CSc.

Institute of Psychology of the Faculty of Arts of Presov University in Presov Ul. 17. novembra 1 080 78 Presov Slovakia

e-mail: tatiana.bugelova@unipo.sk Mgr. Lena Cupkova

Institute of Psychology of the Faculty of Arts of Presov University in Presov Ul. 17. novembra 1 080 78 Presov Slovakia

e-mail: lenacupkova@gmail.com Bc. Lenka Kratochvtlova

Institute of Psychology of the Faculty of Arts of Presov University in Presov Ul. 17. novembra 1 080 78 Presov Slovakia

e-mail: luna.l.kratochvilova@,gmail.com Acknowledgements:

The paper was supported by the VEGA project No. 1/0348/17 titled: Causes and Consequences of Ageism and the Animosity between Generations in and outside Working Environment.

Работа была поддержана проектом VEGA № 1/0348/17 под названием: «Причины и последствия эйджизма и вражды между поколениями в рабочей среде и за ее пределами».

Contribution of the author. The author contributed equality to the present research.