Ageism Measure:
Ageism is the stereotyping of older adults based on chronological age. It is a form of prejudice and discrimination similar to racism and sexism, which allows younger generations to view older adults as separate from mainstream society. Ageist language and imagery often leads to stereotypes of older adults as weak, frail and disabled. In contrast, there are also positive stereotypes of aging, when people assume that all older adults are wise or caring. Ageism includes prejudice (stereotypes and attitudes), personal discrimination (behaviours), and institutional discrimination (policies and practices). The Relating to Older People Evaluation (ROPE) is a self-report measure of the frequency and type of ageist behaviors.
ROPE is a 20-item questionnaire that measures personal discrimination through 14 statements that reflect negative types of ageism, and 6 statements that reflect positive types of ageism. Scoring the ROPE Respondents choose one of three responses to each question.
A Never response is scored as 0, Sometimes is scored as 1, and Often is scored as 2.
Total score may be summed within each dimension and expressed as a proportion of the highest score possible for that dimension.
1. Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, 2010.
2. Cherry, Katie E. and Palmore, Erdman. (2008). “Relating to Older People Evaluation (ROPE): A Measure of Self-Reported Ageism”, Educational Gerontology, 34:10, 849-861. Reprinted with permission.
3. National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly (NICE). www.nicenet.ca