Validation of the everyday ageism scale in Iranian older adults

Perception of everyday ageism significantly impacts older adults' quality of life. However, a suitable tool for measuring this construct has been lacking in Iran. This study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the Everyday Ageism Scale.

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 387 Iranian older adults aged 50-80. In addition to the Everyday Ageism Scale, the DASS-21, the Gierveld Loneliness Scale, and the Brief Social Support Questionnaire were administered. Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability, and test-retest reliability were used to assess reliability. Content, face, and construct validity were examined. Convergent validity was assessed through factor analysis, correlations, and known-groups comparison.

The reliability of the Everyday Ageism Scale was found to be above 0.80 using three methods: Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability, and test-retest correlation. Linguistic validity was confirmed through the back-translation method. Face validity was verified both qualitatively, through expert interviews, and quantitatively, by calculating importance scores, all of which exceeded 1.5. Content validity was established qualitatively via expert interviews and quantitatively through the calculation of CVR and CVI indices. Convergent validity was supported by the correlation analysis between the total score of the Everyday Ageism Scale and its subscales, as well as scores for stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, and perceived social support. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three-factor structure proposed in the original version. Independent t-test results indicated that the perception of age discrimination was higher in the 65-80 age group compared to the 50-64 age group, further supporting validity based on known-groups comparison.

The findings of this study support the reliability and validity of the Everyday Ageism Scale in an Iranian sample, consistent with the original study by Allen et al. (2022). The establishment of the psychometric properties of this scale can facilitate further research on aging, particularly on ageism.