Effects of Age-based Stereotype Threat and Dementia-related Diagnosis Threat on Older Adults’ Objective and Subjective Cognitive Functioning
Year: 2017
Type: article
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias represent a significant health concern. Neuropsychologists commonly see older adult patients referred to assess whether perceived cognitive changes represent normal age-related changes or decline attributable to disease processes. Effective assessment requires recognition of the part a patient’s sociocultural context plays in their functioning. For older adults, this entails understanding “stereotype threat,” whereby performance on cognitive testing may be negatively impacted by being at risk of confirming negative stereotypes of older adults as cognitively impaired. Related to stereotype threat, “diagnosis threat” (impaired performance due to expectations regarding a diagnosis) has been proposed as a possible mechanism for poorer test performance among patients with a history of mild traumatic brain injury and may also impact an individual’s perception of cognitive changes. No published studies have explored diagnosis threat among older adults, although research on dementia worry suggests that for some, concern about developing dementia negatively impacts well-being (and could include high perceived risk of dementia). A sample of 103 older adults (M-age = 72.38, SD = 6.68) was randomly assigned to (a) an age-based stereotype threat manipulation, (b) a dementia-related diagnosis threat manipulation, or (c) a neutral control condition. Although it was hypothesized that those in the stereotype and diagnosis threat groups would perform more poorly on cognitive testing, performance on standard neuropsychological tests was not significantly affected by the experimental manipulation. While the manipulation also did not affect most subjective variables (including self-reported change in cognitive functioning, dementia worry, and self-rated effort), perceived stereotype threat was significantly higher among those in the age-based stereotype threat group. Correlational data suggested significant relationships between subjective variables of interest, including self-reported cognitive change, dementia worry, perceived stereotype threat, perceived risk of developing dementia, and participant perception of test performance. Implications for future research are considered.
Author: Joie Molden
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2892029566