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	Fraboni Scale of Ageism	Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire
Field	Social Gerontology	Social Gerontology
Family	Latent structure	Latent structure
Year of origin	1990	2007
Originator	Maryann Fraboni, Robert Saltstone & Susan Hughes	Ken Laidlaw, Mick Power, Silke Schmidt & the WHOQOL-OLD Group
Type	Self-report attitudinal scale of ageism toward older people	Self-report scale of an older person's own attitudes to ageing
Seminal source	Fraboni, M., Saltstone, R., & Hughes, S. (1990). The Fraboni Scale of Ageism (FSA): An attempt at a more precise measure of ageism. Canadian Journal on Aging, 9(1), 56-66.	Laidlaw, K., Power, M. J., Schmidt, S., & WHOQOL-OLD Group (2007). The Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire (AAQ): development and psychometric properties. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 22(4), 367-379.
Aliases	FSA, Fraboni Ageism Scale, Scale of Ageism, Fraboni Saltstone Hughes Ageism Scale	AAQ, Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire, Laidlaw Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire, WHOQOL-OLD Attitudes Measure
Related	3	3
Summary	The Fraboni Scale of Ageism (FSA) is a self-report instrument designed to measure prejudice toward older people more precisely than earlier, largely cognitive ageism measures. Published by Maryann Fraboni, Robert Saltstone, and Susan Hughes in 1990, it was built on the premise that ageism, like other prejudices, has cognitive, affective, and behavioural components rather than being only a matter of inaccurate beliefs. The scale comprises 29 attitudinal statements answered on a Likert agreement format and organized into three factors drawn from Allport's analysis of prejudice: antilocution (stereotyping and negative talk), avoidance (the wish to keep social distance from older people), and discrimination (endorsement of differential, restrictive treatment). After reverse-scoring positively worded items, responses are summed so that higher totals indicate more ageist attitudes. By moving beyond a single stereotype dimension, the FSA captured the emotional and behavioural sides of ageism and became one of the most widely used measures of ageist attitudes in research and training.	The Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire (AAQ) measures how older adults perceive their own experience of growing older, capturing self-directed attitudes rather than younger people's stereotypes of the old. Developed by Ken Laidlaw, Mick Power, Silke Schmidt, and the WHOQOL-OLD Group and published in 2007, it was created within the World Health Organization's cross-cultural quality-of-life programme to fill the absence of a multidimensional, older-person-centred attitude measure. The questionnaire contains 24 self-report items, eight per subscale, spanning three domains: psychosocial loss, physical change, and psychological growth. Respondents rate agreement on a Likert scale, and items are summed within each domain so that higher scores indicate a more positive attitude to ageing. Crucially, the AAQ treats ageing as having both negative and genuinely positive aspects, so the growth subscale recognizes wisdom and development rather than framing ageing only as decline. It was validated across many countries and has become a standard tool for studying self-perceptions of ageing and their links to well-being.