Attitudes toward aging and older adults in Arab culture : A literature review

Abstract

Background: As population ageing takes place around the world, research on attitudes toward ageing and older people increases in relevance. With migration of people from the Arab world into countries with high percentages of older adults, attitudes toward ageing and older adults held in Arab culture are of particular interest.

Objective: The article provides a review of the empirical literature on attitudes toward ageing and older adults held in the Arab world and discusses the findings on the basis of the general literature on age stereotypes, attitudes toward ageing, and ageism as well as their link to culture.

Method: A literature search was performed to find empirical studies on attitudes toward ageing and older adults that include Arab samples. Studies published in Arabic or English were included.

Results: Studies on attitudes toward ageing with Arab samples are scarce and do not show cohesive patterns of results. None of the hypotheses that have been brought forward to explain cross-cultural differences regarding attitudes toward ageing (i.e., the culture, modernization, and speed of population ageing hypotheses) can fully account for the results. Possible reasons for conflicting results include sociodemographic variables, regional differences, lack of differentiation between meta-perceptions and personal attitudes, heterogeneity of measurement instruments and definitions of "older people" and possible confounds due to the usage of subjective Likert scales in cross-cultural studies.

Conclusion: Further research on attitudes toward ageing in Arab samples are needed and should consider heterogeneity within Arab culture as well as variables other than culture.

Keywords: Ageism; Arab culture; Cross-cultural comparison; Review; Stereotyping.