Influence of African American elders' age stereotypes on their cardiovascular response to stress

Becca R. Levy*, Amy L. Ryall, Corey E. Pilver, Pamela L. Sheridan, Jeanne Y. Wei, Jeffrey M. Hausdorff

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Although it has been shown that White elders are vulnerable to the influence of age stereotypes, it was not known whether this effect applied to African American elders. In the present study, African American elders were randomly assigned to negative or positive implicit-age-stereotype groups. Compared to participants in the positive age-stereotype group, those in the negative age-stereotype group demonstrated significantly more elevated cardiovascular response to stress, as measured by blood pressure and heart rate following mental challenges. These results suggest that negative age stereotypes generate a susceptibility to stress among African American elders, whereas positive age may provide them with a defense against this stress.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)85-93
Number of pages9
JournalAnxiety, Stress and Coping
Volume21
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2008

Keywords

  • African American
  • Age stereotypes
  • Ageism
  • Cardiovascular response to stress
  • Elderly
  • Stress

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