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Awareness of age-related change, chronological age, subjective age and proactivity: An empirical study in China

An aging workforce and the increasing value placed on employees' proactivity are two important features of current workplaces. We address the extent to which this proactivity is affected by age and aging. The study has two objectives. First, it aims to validate the concept of awareness of age-r...

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Autores principales: Zhang, Wanli, Wood, Stephen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9558258/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36245881
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.915673
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author Zhang, Wanli
Wood, Stephen
author_facet Zhang, Wanli
Wood, Stephen
author_sort Zhang, Wanli
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description An aging workforce and the increasing value placed on employees' proactivity are two important features of current workplaces. We address the extent to which this proactivity is affected by age and aging. The study has two objectives. First, it aims to validate the concept of awareness of age-related change (AARC) in the Chinese context. Second, it compares the explanatory power of AARC with that of chronological age and subjective age in predicting three types of proactivity: task proactivity, development proactivity and organization proactivity. We used the ten-item AARC instrument in a survey of teachers (n = 421, mean age = 41.0) in China, and validated its content by comparing the responses of a subsample of these teachers (n = 33, mean age = 42.5) to questions asked in a semi-structured interview. This confirmed the validity of the instrument's content, and its applicability beyond North America and Europe, in a Chinese context. We then show that awareness of positive and negative age-related changes (AARC-Gains and AARC-Losses) are, respectively, positively and negatively associated with the three types of proactivity, and that they are better predictors than chronological age and subjective age. The research adds weight to challenges to negative age stereotyping—-that older employees are set in their ways and less proactive—-and to claims about the value of AARC for measuring aging, by showing that this factor can predict outcomes beyond health and the concerns of older adults.
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spelling pubmed-95582582022-10-14 Awareness of age-related change, chronological age, subjective age and proactivity: An empirical study in China Zhang, Wanli Wood, Stephen Front Psychiatry Psychiatry An aging workforce and the increasing value placed on employees' proactivity are two important features of current workplaces. We address the extent to which this proactivity is affected by age and aging. The study has two objectives. First, it aims to validate the concept of awareness of age-related change (AARC) in the Chinese context. Second, it compares the explanatory power of AARC with that of chronological age and subjective age in predicting three types of proactivity: task proactivity, development proactivity and organization proactivity. We used the ten-item AARC instrument in a survey of teachers (n = 421, mean age = 41.0) in China, and validated its content by comparing the responses of a subsample of these teachers (n = 33, mean age = 42.5) to questions asked in a semi-structured interview. This confirmed the validity of the instrument's content, and its applicability beyond North America and Europe, in a Chinese context. We then show that awareness of positive and negative age-related changes (AARC-Gains and AARC-Losses) are, respectively, positively and negatively associated with the three types of proactivity, and that they are better predictors than chronological age and subjective age. The research adds weight to challenges to negative age stereotyping—-that older employees are set in their ways and less proactive—-and to claims about the value of AARC for measuring aging, by showing that this factor can predict outcomes beyond health and the concerns of older adults. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-09-29 /pmc/articles/PMC9558258/ /pubmed/36245881 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.915673 Text en Copyright © 2022 Zhang and Wood. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Zhang, Wanli
Wood, Stephen
Awareness of age-related change, chronological age, subjective age and proactivity: An empirical study in China
title Awareness of age-related change, chronological age, subjective age and proactivity: An empirical study in China
title_full Awareness of age-related change, chronological age, subjective age and proactivity: An empirical study in China
title_fullStr Awareness of age-related change, chronological age, subjective age and proactivity: An empirical study in China
title_full_unstemmed Awareness of age-related change, chronological age, subjective age and proactivity: An empirical study in China
title_short Awareness of age-related change, chronological age, subjective age and proactivity: An empirical study in China
title_sort awareness of age-related change, chronological age, subjective age and proactivity: an empirical study in china
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9558258/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36245881
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.915673
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