The consequences of perceived age discrimination amongst older police officers: Is social support a buffer?

This paper considers the psychological consequences of perceived age discrimination, and the buffering effect of social support. Findings suggest that age discrimination acts as a stressor, with negative effects on job and life satisfaction, perceived power and prestige of the job, and affective and normative commitment, along with positive effects on withdrawal cognitions and continuance commitment. For work-based social support, there were positive main effects on job and life satisfaction, power and prestige of the job, and affective and normative commitment, and a negative main effect on withdrawal cognitions. However, there were no significant moderating effects for work-based social support, and we found the anticipated buffering effect for non-work-based social support only for life satisfaction, with reverse buffering for job satisfaction and normative commitment.