About This Guide
Ageism / Age Discrimination
This guide is designed to support academic and personal research on the topic of age discrimination, and of multi-disciplinary approaches to promoting inclusive practices and equity for people of all ages.
The guide is continually updated with links to new library materials and other relevant web resources. Use the tabs to navigate through a variety of research tools and selected content.
Ageism
Ageism refers to the stereotypes (how we think), prejudice (how we feel) and discrimination (how we act) towards others or oneself based on age.
Ageism affects everyone. Children as young as 4 years old become aware of their culture’s age stereotypes. From that age onwards they internalize and use these stereotypes to guide their feelings and behavior towards people of different ages. They also draw on culture’s age stereotypes to perceive and understand themselves, which can result in self-directed ageism at any age. Ageism intersects and exacerbates other forms of disadvantage including those related to sex, race and disability.
Ageism is everywhere: from our institutions and relationships to ourselves. For example, ageism is in policies that support healthcare rationing by age, practices that limit younger people’s opportunities to contribute to decision-making in the workplace, patronizing behavior used in interactions with older and younger people, and in self-limiting behavior, which can stem from internalized stereotypes about what a person of a given age can be or do.
World Health Organization. (2021, March 18). Ageing: Ageism. https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/ageing-ageism
Here are a few effective search terms to try when using the Library Catalog or a database:
- ageism
- age discrimination
- age AND bias
- age AND stereotypes
- intergenerational relations
Add keywords like employment, healthcare, education, technology, etc. to research specific aspects.
Top 5 Resources
- Social Issues POWERSEARCH This link opens in a new windowThe Social Issues PowerSearch searches the following databases simultaneously: Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts, and PAIS International.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources, with a broad variety of coverage in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, spanning more than 50 disciplines. Collections on JSTOR include the complete archival records of thousands of journal titles.
- SocINDEXSocINDEX includes abstracts for thousands of core sociological journals and related areas of study dating back to 1895. The database also indexes books, monographs, conference papers, and other content sources. Additionally, it features more than 25,000 author profiles covering the most prolific, most cited, and most frequently searched for authors in the database; profiles include biographical data and information, areas of expertise, and academic/professional focus of the authors.
- Management POWERSEARCH This link opens in a new window
Searches the following databases simultaneously: Bloomberg Businessweek Archive, Business Abstracts with Full Text, Business Source Complete, Regional Business News, Small Business Reference Center, and Vocational and Career Collection.
- Medicine and Health POWERSEARCH This link opens in a new window
Searches all of the following databases simultaneously: Alt HealthWatch, APA PsycARTICLES, APA PsycINFO, CINAHL, General Science Full Text (H.W. Wilson), Health Source Consumer Edition, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, MEDLINE, and Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection.