1. As people get older they are better able to cope with life
2. It is a privilege to grow old
3. Old age is a time of loneliness
4. Wisdom comes with age
5. There are many pleasant things about growing older
6. Old age is a depressing time of life
7. It is important to take exercise at any age
8. Growing older has been easier than I thought
9. I find it more difficult to talk about my feelings as I get older
10.I am more accepting of myself as I have grown older
11.I don’t feel old
12.I see old age mainly as a time of loss
13.My identity is not defined by my age
14.I have more energy now than I expected for my age
15.I am losing my physical independence as I get older
16.Problems with my physical health do not hold me back from doing what I want to do
17.As I get older I find it more difficult to make new friends
18.It is important to pass on the benefits of my experience to younger people
19.I believe my life has made a difference
20.I don’t feel involved in society now that I am older
21.I want to give a good example to younger people
22.I feel excluded from things because of my age
23.My health is better than I expected for my age
24.I keep myself as fit and active as possible by exercising
Person Separation Index: Psychosocial loss 0.807‚ Physical change 0.809‚ and Psychological growth 0.738
Internal consistency measured by Cronbach’s alpha was .81 for the total score‚ 0.75 forPhysical Change‚ 0.62 for PsychologicalGrowth and 0.74 for Psychosocial LossTest–retest correlations were high for the total score (r = 0.79; p < 0.001) and all subscales (0.77 for Psychological Growth‚ 0.81 for Physical Change and 0.76 for Psychosocial Loss; all p < 0.001).
1= strongly disagree‚ 5 = strongly agree
1 reflects strongly disagree or not at all true‚ and 5 reflects strongly agree or extremely true.
Not at all true‚ Not so true‚ Moderately true‚ Rather True‚ Absolutely right
Reverse-scored (1‚ 2‚ 4‚ 5‚ 7‚ 8‚ 10‚ 11‚ 13‚ 14‚ 16‚ 18‚ 19‚ 21‚ 23‚ 24)
Psychosocial loss (3‚ 6‚ 9‚ 12‚ 15‚ 17‚ 20‚ and 21)‚ Physical change (7‚ 8‚ 11‚ 13‚ 14‚ 16‚ 23‚ and 24)‚ Psychological growth (1‚ 2‚ 4‚ 5‚ 10‚ 18‚ 19‚ and 21)
This instrument can be found at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4043998/ & https://hqlo.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1477-7525-6-5
Laidlaw‚ K.‚ Power‚ M.‚ Schmidt‚ S.‚ Skevington‚ S. and ‚ T. W.-O. G. (2007). The attitudes to ageing questionnaire (AAQ): development and psychometric properties. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry‚ 22(4)‚ 367–379
Shenkin‚ S.D.‚ Watson‚ R.‚ Laidlaw‚ Ken.‚ Starr‚ J.M.‚ and Deary‚ I. J. (2014). The Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire: Mokken Scaling Analysis. . PLoS ONE 9(6): e99100. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0099100
Laidlaw‚ K.‚ Kishita‚ N.‚ Shenkin‚ S.D.‚ Power‚ M.J. (2017).Development of a short form of the Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire (AAQ). International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry‚ http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/gps.4687/abstract