Methodological Recommendations to Move Research on Work and Aging Forward

The number of empirical studies on work and aging is rapidly increasing, yet the field lacks an explicit canon of best practices regarding research design, sampling, measurement, and statistical analysis. To move research on work and aging forward, we propose and explain 8 methodological recommendations and illustrate them using both examples from the literature and statistical simulations. Concerning research design and sampling, we suggest the inclusion of mediators and moderators of associations between age and work outcomes, the adoption of alternatives to cross-sectional designs, and the use of representative samples with appropriate numbers of participants from different age groups. With regard to measurement and analysis, we advocate operationalizing age as a continuous variable, routinely testing curvilinear associations between age and other variables, controlling for other time-related constructs (e.g., job tenure), and the use of polynomial regression and response surface methodology instead of difference scores. Overall, these methodological recommendations represent a useful guide for researchers, editors, and reviewers, as well as practitioners seeking to enhance and evaluate the rigor of empirical research in the field of work and aging.