Reducing Ageism in Organizations: A Study Protocol
Trial statusNot yet recruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
AgeNot listed
SponsorUniversity of Salamanca
About this trial
Background: This article presents the protocol for a randomised controlled trial designed to develop and evaluate a psychoeducational intervention aimed at reduce ageism in the workplace, will improve attitudes toward older workers as well as various indicators of well-being and psychosocial functioning in the professional context.
Methods: The study will be conducted at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Salamanca (Spain). Currently employed with at least five years of tenure in the organization or the relevant sector, performing tasks that involve frequent collaboration with colleagues from different generations will be recruited. Participants will be randomly assigned to two groups: the intervention group, which will undergo a psychoeducational programme consisting of 12 sessions over 3 months; and the control group, which will receive a educational programme of one session. All participants will complete initial and final assessments, as well as a 3-month follow-up, collecting sociodemographic data and applying various psychological, social and health assessment instruments.
Discussion: This protocol describes a comprehensive psychoeducational intervention aimed at reducing negative stereotypical beliefs about older workers and enhance relevant psychosocial variables in the organizational environment, such as job satisfaction, psychological flexibility, perceived social support, perceived health, and self-efficacy in navigating intergenerational work situations. The evidence generated will guide future interventions, policies, and educational programmes to promote preparing workers and teams in several key areas, such as recognising and challenging age-related stereotypes, developing empathy towards colleagues from different generations, promoting inclusive practices in daily interaction and work collaboration and fostering a more equitable and respectful organisational climate towards all ages.
Eligibility criteria
This trial accepts healthy volunteersQualifiers
Currently employed with at least five years of tenure in the organization or the relevant sector. At this stage of their career, attitudes toward colleagues from different generations are considered more likely to be deeply ingrained, making this profile particularly suitable for the intervention.
Performing tasks that involve frequent collaboration with colleagues from different generations.
Ability and willingness to attend the program sessions regularly.
Disqualifiers
Significant reading or linguistic comprehension difficulties that prevent them from participating adequately in psychoeducational sessions or completing assessment instruments.
Serious and destabilised medical or psychological disorders that may interfere with the normal development of the programme (e.g., severe untreated depressive episodes, limiting neurological disorders).
Failure to meet the inclusion criteria, specifically not having been with the company for at least five years or not participating in intergenerational teams.
Refusal to sign the informed consent form or lack of availability to attend programme sessions regularly.
Trial design
Design model
Parallel
Treatments tested in this trial
Psychoeducational Programme
BehavioralThe programme seeks to reduce stereotypes and negative attitudes towards older workers, promoting an inclusive and generationally diverse work environment. Its objectives include improving: attitudes towards older workers, psychological flexibility, perceived social support, well-being at work, perceived health, and self-efficacy in managing intergenerational teams.
Education Programme
BehavioralParticipants will receive general information and recommendations to foster inclusive attitudes towards older workers and promote a positive intergenerational work environment. This minimally active intervention provides basic support without the structured sessions of the psychoeducational programme, facilitating the comparison of effects between groups.
Treatment groups
90 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groupsGroup A: Education ProgrammeActive comparator 1 intervention
Group B: Psychoeducational ProgrammeExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
Attitudes toward older workers
Measured by the Stereotypes toward Aging at Work Questionnaire (CETV-T), adapted from the CENVE (Blanca et al., 2005). It consists of 20 self-administered items, with a 7-point Likert-type scale (from 1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree). It assesses four dimensions related to negative attitudes towards retirement: (1) health, (2) economy, (3) status and (4) leisure/family. The final scores indicate more negative attitudes the higher the value obtained. The full scale has a Cronbach's alpha of 0.80, for the factors, the values obtained are: Leisure/leisure time-family an alpha of 0.836, economy 0.791, status 0.78 and health 0.69 (although this factor has the lowest value it is still considered acceptable within psychometric research standards).
Time frame
Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow upSecondary outcomes
1
Job satisfaction and well-being at work
Measured using the Job Satisfaction Scale (JSS) adapted into Spanish (Lukas Mujika et al., 2016). The ESL consists of 15 self-administered items, answered on a 5-point Likert scale (from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Higher scores indicate greater job satisfaction and a more positive perception of an inclusive and intergenerational working environment.The scale demonstrates good overall reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.802) and has been validated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.
Time frame
Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up2
Psychological flexibility
Assessed using the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II) (Bond et al., 2011). The AAQ-II is a 7-item questionnaire designed to assess experiential avoidance and psychological inflexibility. Participants were asked to rate their agreement with each statement on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (not at all true) to 7 (completely true). The reliability of this instrument in our sample was high (Cronbach's α = 0.949).
Time frame
Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up3
Perceived social support
Assessed using the MOS Questionnaire of Perceived Social Support (Sherbourne \& Stewart, 1991). It assesses perceived social support. It consists of 20 items. It consists of five factors: support network, emotional/informational social support, instrumental support, positive social interaction and affective support. It has a Likert-type response format of 1 (never) to 5 (always) points. The overall scores range from 20 to 100 points. The higher the score, the more social support the individual perceives. It has a Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of 0.97.
Time frame
Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up4
Perceived health
Assessed using the Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) (Goldberg \& Williams, 1988; Spanish version of Sánchez-López \& Dresch, 2008). It allows us to measure perceived health. It has 12 items with 4 response options, from 0 (better than usual) to 3 (much more than usual). Higher scores correspond to a higher level of perceived health. It has good internal consistency, with Cronbach's alphas varying between 0.82 and 0.86 (Goldberg \& Williams, 1988); and the Spanish validation has a Cronbach's alpha of 0.76 (Sánchez-López \& Dresch, 2008).
Time frame
Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow upLocations
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Source ClinicalTrials.gov
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