Thriving despite aging: how attitudes toward own aging empower thriving at work

Abstract

Background Against the backdrop of ongoing population aging, how to activate the work vitality of older employees aged 45 and above has become an urgent challenge for organizational human resource management. Method Drawing upon Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this study constructs a moderated mediation model and employs a mixed-method research design combining a scenario-based experiment ( N = 178) and a questionnaire survey ( N = 225) to systematically investigate the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions through which attitudes toward own aging empower thriving at work among older employees. Results Positive attitudes toward own aging predict thriving at work; perceived occupational stress mediates the relationship between attitudes toward own aging and thriving at work; gender moderates the indirect effect of perceived occupational stress. Specifically, for female employees, the negative effect of positive attitudes toward own aging on perceived occupational stress is stronger, and consequently, the facilitating effect on individual thriving at work is also more pronounced. Conclusion These findings not only elucidate the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions by which attitudes toward own aging influence individual thriving at work, but also provide theoretical and practical implications for effectively enhancing the thriving level of older employees.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Frontiers in Psychology, 2026 · DOI ↗