Psychometric Properties of the Perceived Ageism Questionnaire in Turkish Older Adults

INTRODUCTION: Perceived ageism has been shown to play an important role in older adults’ health and well-being; however, brief measures assessing both negative and positive age-related experiences require robust psychometric evidence across different languages and contexts. This study provides psychometric evidence for the Perceived Ageism Questionnaire (PAQ-8) in Turkish community-dwelling older adults.
METHODS: This study used a methodological design and included 101 adults aged 55 years and older. After translation and expert appraisal, content validity was examined using item- and scale-level indices. Evidence for construct validity was obtained through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Reliability was evaluated by assessing internal consistency and short-term stability in a subsample. Statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 27 and R (lavaan package).
RESULTS: In the present sample, participants’ mean age was 61.46±5.88 years. Content validity was excellent (Item content validity index=1.00). Sampling adequacy was supported (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin=0.747), and Bartlett’s test indicated suitability for factor analysis (p<0.001). Exploratory factor analysis supported a two-factor structure (negative and positive perceived ageism) explaining 49.62% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two-factor model with excellent fit. The total scale and both subscales showed satisfactory internal consistency coefficients (total α=0.81, ω=0.85; negative α=0.80, ω=0.81; positive α=0.75, ω=0.76).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The Turkish PAQ-8 demonstrated excellent content validity, a stable two-factor structure, satisfactory internal consistency, and excellent test–retest reliability. It appears to be a brief and reliable instrument for assessing perceived negative and positive ageism among older adults in Türkiye.

Keywords: Ageism, cross-cultural adaptation, older adults, perceived ageism, psychometrics, reliability, validity.