Open research questions in Aging and Gerontology Research

What the literature leaves open

• The conventional focus on either positive or negative aspects of relationship quality has limited the understanding of intergenerational ambivalence. The associations between intergenerational ambivalence and mental health and well-being have not been well studied in non-Western contexts. The moderating role of attitudinal modernity in these relationships remains understudied.

  When Intergenerational Ambivalence Matters: How Attitudinal Modernity Moderates Its Associations with Mental Health and Well-being Among Middle-aged and Older Adults · 2026 · DOI

• Investigating the relationship between meaning and health outcomes, - Developing interventions to strengthen sense of direction, facilitate acceptance of limits, or cultivate transcendence, - Examining the generalizability of the MHS to other cultures and populations

  Meaning as Horizon in the Religious Context: Development and Validation of a Short Scale in Poland · 2026 · DOI

• Existing frameworks for measuring meaning in life assume that meaning is something one either has or lacks. There is a need for a more nuanced and multidimensional approach to assessing meaning in life. The paper identifies a gap in the measurement of meaning in life, particularly in the context of religiosity and spirituality.

  Meaning as Horizon in the Religious Context: Development and Validation of a Short Scale in Poland · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies the challenge of recruiting participants and ensuring a high response rate. It also notes the importance of reducing systematic self-selection bias related to the key constructs under investigation. The research highlights the complexity of the analytical strategy employed and the need for statistical power analysis.

  Religious Meaning System and Depression Among Older Adults in Poland: A Moderated Mediation Model of Attitude to Ageing and Meaning Making · 2026 · DOI

• Convenience sampling strategy, - Exclusion of participants declaring Judaism or no religious affiliation, - Limited to a Christian conceptual framework

  Religious Meaning System and Depression Among Older Adults in Poland: A Moderated Mediation Model of Attitude to Ageing and Meaning Making · 2026 · DOI

• The data are not shared publicly due to ethics requirements, - We did not preregister the study design, hypotheses, or analytic plan, - The sample size is limited to 203 US older adults, - The study only examined the relationship between prosocial engagement and successful aging in the context of formal volunteering

  Momentary experience of successful aging among high-commitment volunteers and social innovators. · 2026 · DOI

• Investigate how everyday prosocial actions are associated with older adults' momentary perceptions of aging well in different contexts, - Examine the long-term impact of prosocial engagement on successful aging, - Explore the relationship between prosocial engagement and successful aging in different populations, - Develop interventions to promote prosocial engagement and successful aging

  Momentary experience of successful aging among high-commitment volunteers and social innovators. · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies the challenge of understanding the complexity of ageism within the group of older persons. It highlights the need to address both self-directed and other-directed ageism. The paper also notes the challenge of developing personalized interventions that match the characteristics of the individual and the context in which ageism operates.

  Toward an intragroup approach to alleviate ageism in the second half of life · 2025 · DOI

• There is a scarcity of knowledge concerning interventions to alleviate ageism directed by older persons toward themselves or other older persons. The traditional view of older persons as victims of ageism has contributed to this gap. The paper identifies the need for an intragroup approach to understand ageism in the second half of life.

  Toward an intragroup approach to alleviate ageism in the second half of life · 2025 · DOI

• The complexity of measuring ageism. The need for a multifaceted instrument to capture several aspects of ageism. The challenge of translating the WHO-ageism into French while preserving its content validity.

  Concurrent and convergent construct validities of the 5-item World Health Organization Ageism Experiences Scale in older French Canadians · 2025 · DOI

• The lack of a French translation of the WHO-ageism. The unknown psychometrics qualities of the WHO-ageism. The need for a multifaceted instrument to measure ageism.

  Concurrent and convergent construct validities of the 5-item World Health Organization Ageism Experiences Scale in older French Canadians · 2025 · DOI

• Reducing ageism in early adolescence is a challenging task. The study faced logistic constraints in implementing the intervention at the class level for the Arab sample. The results highlight the need for further research on effective interventions to reduce ageism in multicultural settings.

  Reducing ageism among Israeli Jew and Arab middle school students: a randomized controlled trial · 2025 · DOI

• The study had a limited sample size of 606 participants. The intervention was only implemented among Israeli Jew and Arab middle school students, which may not be generalizable to other populations. The study relied on self-reported measures, which may be subject to biases.

  Reducing ageism among Israeli Jew and Arab middle school students: a randomized controlled trial · 2025 · DOI

• Further studies can be conducted to assess the active aging situation in other developing countries, - Research can be done to evaluate the effects of different socio-demographic, economic, health, personal, behavioral, and physical determinants on active aging

  Factors affecting the active aging situation in Bangladesh · 2025 · DOI

• Investigate the long-term effects of square dance exercise on quality of life, - Examine the effects of square dance exercise on other populations, - Explore the mechanisms of square dance exercise on physical and mental health

  The relationship between square dance exercise and quality of life in middle-aged and older adults: chain mediated effects of negative emotions and attitudes toward aging · 2024 · DOI

• The measure employed makes it difficult to pinpoint the distinct influence of self-stereotyping independently of that of other closely-related processes, - The entire sample of the study on age-based stereotype threat was under the age of 66, - Research on the impact of older age on well-being remains inconsistent due to high inter-individual variability

  What do we really know about age-related stereotypes and well-being of older adults? A commentary on the state of the art · 2024 · DOI

• Investigating the direct and indirect relationships between age-related stereotypes and well-being, - Examining the role of well-being in mediating the influence of age-related stereotypes on health, - Considering both hedonic and eudaimonic aspects of well-being in future studies

  What do we really know about age-related stereotypes and well-being of older adults? A commentary on the state of the art · 2024 · DOI

• The challenge of maintaining healthy and active lifestyles for people during the ageing process. The difficulty of promoting a positive image of old age and ageing. The need to combat ageism and promote inclusivity.

  Towards Equitable Representations of Ageing: Evaluation of Gender, Territories, Aids and Artificial Intelligence · 2024 · DOI

• The limited portrayal of the full spectrum of assistive technologies available. The gap in the representation of assistive technologies in digital imagery. The lack of studies on the representation of older people regarding aids and assistive devices.

  Towards Equitable Representations of Ageing: Evaluation of Gender, Territories, Aids and Artificial Intelligence · 2024 · DOI

• " While various strategies have been explored to promote healthy aging and achieve healthy longevity, it remains uncertain which practices are most effective.

  Enhancing Healthy Longevity: Scoping Review of Practices and Interventions · 2026 · DOI

• We argue that this masks more critical, dehumanizing evaluations of older women, forming part of a wider and under-researched area of discourses and social inequalities around femininity and aging.

  Mutton Dressed as Lamb: An Idiom-Based Perspective on Discourses of Gender and Aging · 2026 · DOI

• Future research should examine the quality and context of intergenerational relationships and employ longitudinal designs to better understand how intergenerational engagement contributes to child and adolescent well-being over time.

  Intergenerational Connections and Pre-adolescent Flourishing: An Australian Snapshot · 2026 · DOI

• The review highlights the need to validate AR empirically, extend research to non-elderly populations and underexplored regions, and broaden methodological approaches.

  The Impact of Societal Ageing on Individual Consumers’ Insurance Purchase Intentions: A Review and Research Agenda · 2026 · DOI

• Although research has linked ageism and pain to increased stress in older adults, their influence on stress within the context of pandemics has not been adequately examined.

  The Impact of Ageism and Pain on Pandemic-Related Stress in Older Adults: A Structural Equation Modeling and Mediation Analysis · 2025 · DOI

• However, longitudinal research examining the subtypes of psychological well-being among Chinese older adults remains scarce, and little is known about the factors influencing the belonging and transition of these subtypes.

  Changes in psychological well-being among older adults: a latent transition analysis from China · 2025 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Aging and Gerontology Research

• Assessment of Older People: Self-Maintaining and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living · The Gerontologist · 1969 · 13,515 citations
• Studies of Illness in the Aged · JAMA · 1963 · 9,823 citations
• Successful Aging · The Gerontologist · 1997 · 3,569 citations
• Science for the post-normal age · Futures · 1993 · 2,872 citations
• The World report on ageing and health: a policy framework for healthy ageing · The Lancet · 2015 · 2,833 citations
• Human Aging: Usual and Successful · Science · 1987 · 2,399 citations
• Aging, Natural Death, and the Compression of Morbidity · New England Journal of Medicine · 1980 · 2,326 citations
• Subjective wellbeing, health, and ageing · The Lancet · 2014 · 2,004 citations
• Time, Human Agency, and Social Change: Perspectives on the Life Course · Social Psychology Quarterly · 1994 · 1,965 citations
• Dimensions and types of social status: A cross-age perspective. · Developmental Psychology · 1982 · 1,685 citations

Most recent work

• Mapping the landscape of geriatric medicine education, training and practice in Europe · Age and Ageing · 2026
• The International Journal of Aging and Society · The International Journal of Aging and Society · 2026
• Medical students' experiences in providing medical care to older patients: A rich picture study · Medical Education · 2026
• Adolescents’ Experiences of Anti-Youth Ageism · Journal of Adolescent Research · 2026
• Social determinants of cognitive aging trajectories across 39 countries · medRxiv · 2026
• Perceiving Stories, Seeing Selves: Older Adults’ Cognitive and Emotional Engagement with Human-Written Narratives and AI-Generated Imagery · International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction · 2026
• There, but not there: older people in anti-ageism interventions · The Gerontologist · 2026
• Predicting daily fluctuations in multidimensional subjective age among adults aged 19 to 84 years · International Journal of Behavioral Development · 2026
• Visualizing ageing: AI art’s role in shaping cultural narratives · Ageing and Society · 2026
• The geriatric gap: the absence of geriatric medicine in postgraduate medical training in Poland · European Geriatric Medicine · 2026

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