Measuring Age Discrimination at Work: Spanish Adaptation and Preliminary Validation of the Nordic Age Discrimination Scale (NADS)

Abstract

Negative stereotypes about older workers can result in ageism and age discrimination in the workplace. The aim of this study is to carry out an adaptation to Spanish and a preliminary validation of the Nordic Age Discrimination Scale (NADS) in a sample of Spanish workers over 55 years of age. The study involved 209 employees aged between 55 and 67 years old (155 women (74.2%) and 54 men (25.8%)) working in the health sector with different professional categories (nurses, doctors, nursing assistants, ancillaries and health technicians). The reliability index of the six dimensions of the NADS (promotion, training, development, development appraisals, wage increase and change processes) measured by Cronbach’s alpha was α = 0.83. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, with the goodness-of-fit indexes used, reflect an acceptable adjustment of the single-factor structure of the NADS. Regarding criterion and construct validity, the NADS correlated positively and negatively with the respective variables in the expected directions, except in one case. These results indicate that the Spanish version of the NADS shows adequate levels of internal consistency and criterion validity, and this instrument meets standard psychometric properties in its Spanish version.

It Is Never too Late to Learn: The Role of Organizational Support in Older Employees’ Learning

“…Therefore, we posit the second hypothesis: H2: 'Younger employees achieve better learning results in comparison to their older counterparts.' Perceived organizational support for learning Carral and Alcover (2019) report that age discrimination is negatively related to perceived supervisors' as well as the co-workers' support. Moreover, negative views on aging workers might elicit self-stereotyping believes of older workers themselves as being incompetent in terms of developing desired results (Harris, Krygsman, Waschenko & Laliberte Rudman, 2018;Voss, Wolff & Rothermund, 2017).…”

Transcultural Validation of the Nordic Age Discrimination Scale for the Spanish-Speaking Working Populations

“…A preliminary adaptation and validation of the NADS to Spanish was carried out by Carral & Alcover (2019) using a sample of Spanish older workers. However, the differences in labor and social cultures between Spanish-speaking countries in Europe and America, suggested the need for an adaptation and transcultural validation of the instrument for testing rigorously its psychometric properties.…”

“…To provide a measurement tool that can quantify the phenomenon of ageism in Spanish-speaking countries the main goal of this study is to validate and adapt the Nordic Age Discrimination Scale (NADS) (Furunes & Mykletun, 2010), which has been proven to measure perceptions of job discrimination elsewhere (Carral & Alcover, 2019), in a sample of Chilean, Colombian, and Spanish workers. To this end, this study conducts confirmatory factorial and reliability analyses to demonstrate structural and internal consistencies for this instrument, as well as its validity.…”

Is Human Capital Ready for Change? A Strategic Approach Adapting Porter’s Five Forces to Human Resources

“…Age is another bias in switching jobs. Studies show that, beginning with job advertisements and continuing with the methods of recruitment, older persons are affected by age discrimination [53,54]. The number of employees aged 65+ is expected to grow from 19% in 2018 to 29% by 2060, which will represent a major problem in finding talents [55].…”