Resiliency Over Time of Elders’ Age Stereotypes After Encountering Stressful Events: Table 1.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether the age stereotypes of older individuals would become more negative or else show resiliency following stressful events and to examine whether age-stereotype negativity would increase the likelihood of experiencing a stressful event (i.e., hospitalization). METHOD: Age stereotypes of 231 participants, 70 years and older, were assessed across 10 years, before and after the occurrence of hospitalizations and bereavements. RESULTS: Age-stereotype negativity was resilient despite encountering stressful events. In contrast, more negative age stereotypes were associated with a 50% greater likelihood of experiencing a hospitalization. DISCUSSION: The robustness of negative age stereotypes was expressed in their capacity to resist change as well as generate it.