Abstract: Due to function decline or loss in later life, older adults are experiencing more and more anxiety about death, which could damage their quality of life. From a social and cultural perspective, this study examined the role of aging stereotypes in death anxiety. Aging stereotypes refer to the general beliefs about older adults, including positive aging stereotypes and negative aging stereotypes. The stereotype embodiment theory proposes that the aging process is, in part, a social construct. Individuals assimilate the stereotypes in the surrounding culture into their self-concept, which in turn influences their functioning and health. This study thus expected that older adults’ positive aging stereotypes would be negatively associated with their death anxiety, whereas older adults’ negative aging stereotypes would be positively associated with their death anxiety. This study further examined the relationship between aging stereotypes and death anxiety within older couples. There are spousal interrelations in older couples in many domains, such as health, cognition, and well-being. According to the dyadic stress and coping paradigm, a husband and wife often function as a unit when facing the challenges of aging. For example, previous studies found that older adults’ attitudes toward aging had impacts not only on their own mental health, but on their partners’ mental health. This study expected that older adults’ aging stereotypes would influence their own (actor effects) and their spouse’s (partner effects) death anxiety. A total of 145 older couples (age range 55–88 years) from 10 communities in Chongqing, China, took part in this study. Participants completed self-report measurements using the Image of Aging Scale and the Death Anxiety Scale. We used the actor–partner interdependence model to examine the actor and partner effects of aging stereotypes on death anxiety within older couples. Age, education, income, and physical health were used as control variables in the data analysis. The results showed that the dyad had a significant congruence in aging stereotypes and death anxiety, respectively. Aging stereotypes had significant actor effects on death anxiety within the dyad. That is, older adults’ positive aging stereotypes were negatively associated with their own death anxiety, whereas older adults’ negative aging stereotypes were positively associated with their own death anxiety. A gender difference emerged for the partner effects of aging stereotypes on death anxiety. Specifically, husbands’ positive aging stereotypes showed negative effects on wives’ death anxiety, whereas the partner effects of wives’ positive aging stereotypes on husbands’ death anxiety were not significant. Wives’ negative aging stereotypes showed positive effects on husbands’ death anxiety, whereas, the partner effects of husbands’ negative aging stereotypes on wives’ death anxiety were not significant. The findings from this study indicate that the social construct of aging is important in reducing older adults’ death anxiety. Interventions to enhancing older adults’ positive beliefs and reducing their negative beliefs about aging would be beneficial to their quality of life. In addition, the gender differences of partner effects have implications in developing couple-based intervention programs to reduce the death anxiety of older adults.

Key words: aging stereotypes, death anxiety, older couples, actor-partner interdependence model

摘要： 目的：考察老年人的老化刻板印象对自身及配偶的死亡焦虑的影响。方法：145对老年夫妻完成老化印象量表和死亡焦虑量表，并运用行动者-对象互依模型进行数据分析。结果：（1）老化刻板印象和死亡焦虑在夫妻内部分别具有一致性；（2）老化刻板印象对自身死亡焦虑的行动者效应显著；（3）丈夫的积极老化刻板印象对妻子死亡焦虑的对象效应显著，妻子的消极老化刻板印象对丈夫死亡焦虑的对象效应显著。结论：老年人的老化刻板印象不仅影响自身而且影响配偶的死亡焦虑，但夫妻之间的影响存在性别差异。

关键词: 老化刻板印象, 死亡焦虑, 老年夫妻, 行动者-对象互依模型