A Study of the Link Between Ageism and Loneliness to Raise Awareness and Prevent Discrimination Against Older Adults

Ageism, understood as discrimination based on age, is a structural and normalized form of social exclusion that particularly affects older adults and remains largely unrecognized. In Europe and Spain, a significant portion of the population holds negative beliefs about old age, such as the idea that older adults are a burden or lack social value. These attitudes have direct consequences on how older adults are treated in daily life, leading to reduced opportunities for participation and an increase in unwanted loneliness, which affects older age groups particularly severely.

The accumulated evidence thus points to an urgent and as yet unaddressed need: to strategically and sustainably address the connection between ageism and loneliness, from a perspective of rights, social justice, and the strengthening of intergenerational relationships.

General Objective:

This project by Grandes Amigos seeks to highlight ageism as a form of structural discrimination that violates the rights of older adults, analyze its link to unwanted loneliness, and drive a cultural shift that promotes respect, accountability, and equal treatment toward older adults.

Specific Objectives:

• To conduct an in-depth analysis, using a qualitative methodology, of how ageism influences the life trajectories and experiences of loneliness among older adults, through life stories collected in different geographical and social contexts. To identify structural, individual, and contextual factors that contribute to age discrimination going unrecognized and unreported, and that fuel social withdrawal, invisibility, and isolation.
• To highlight stories of discrimination, resilience, and resistance experienced by older adults, emphasizing life trajectories that provide insights for raising awareness and changing social perceptions of old age.
• To produce a final report with an informative, accessible, and rigorous approach that systematizes the study’s findings, identifies narrative patterns, and proposes recommendations for institutions, professionals, the media, and the general public.
• To design and implement a nationwide awareness campaign on ageism as a form of discrimination, based on real stories, with accessible and emotionally compelling digital and in-person content.

Methodology

The project adopts a comprehensive methodological approach aimed at highlighting ageism as a specific form of age-based discrimination that directly contributes to the violation of rights, underreporting, and the deterioration of older adults’ social well-being.

To address this issue from an empirical and transformative perspective, the program is structured around two complementary lines of work: on the one hand, a qualitative study based on life stories that allows for an in-depth analysis of the relationship between ageism and loneliness, incorporating subjective experience and the mechanisms of self-exclusion and stigmatization; and, on the other, a national awareness and social communication campaign aimed at fostering collective awareness, challenging stereotypes about old age, and promoting public condemnation of ageism. In this way, the proposal combines research, the production of applied knowledge, and communicative action, and aligns with Priority 6 of the program by contributing to the fight against age discrimination through analysis, information, and communication activities with social impact.