Reducing Ageism in Organizations: A Study Protocol (ageism)

Reducing Ageism in the Workplace: Protocol for a Psychoeducational Programme in a Randomised Controlled 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.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Ageism; Job Satisfaction; Workers
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Education Programme; Behavioral: Psychoeducational Programme

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 90
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 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.

Exclusion Criteria:

Workers who meet any of the following conditions will be excluded from the study:

• 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.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Education Programme; Objective: Participants 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. Materials: Dossier with instructions and recommendations on inclusion and intergenerational awareness at work. Procedures: Participants will receive the dossier with information on: identifying age stereotypes, good practices for the workplace inclusion of older workers, and basic strategies for promoting a respectful and equitable work environment.	Behavioral: Education Programme; Participants 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.
Experimental: Psychoeducational Programme; Objective: The 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. Materials: Projector, computer, screen, presentations, stationery, chairs, tables, and homework log. Procedures: The programme combines structured education with psychoeducational activities. Who conducts it: All sessions are led by psychologists with experience in generational diversity and ageing in the workplace, rotating between three professionals to ensure consistency, thematic accuracy and personalised attention.	Behavioral: Psychoeducational Programme; The 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.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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).	Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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.	Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
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).	Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
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.	Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
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).	Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up
Self-efficacy	Assessed by the Escala de Autoeficacia Generalizada (EAG) (Baessler & Schwarzer, 1996). It assesses the stable feeling of personal competence to deal effectively with a variety of stressful situations. It consists of 10 items with four Likert-type response options from 1 (incorrect) to 4 (true). Scores range from 10 to 40 points. Higher scores indicate higher levels of self-efficacy. The scale obtained a Cronbach's alpha of 0.81.	Baseline; up to 24 weeks; 3 months follow up

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Salamanca

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): September 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 16, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 16, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): March 19, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 19, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 16, 2026
• Last Verified: March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: psychology; psychoeducational intervention; job satisfaction; ageism; organizations
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavior; Social Behavior; Prejudice; Social Discrimination; Ageism
• Other Study ID Numbers: USAL ageism

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: They will be made available to researchers in the document repository "GREDOS" of the University of Salamanca, Spain.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data will be available at the end of the study.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Open access for researchers.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; ICF

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No