A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between age and degrees of avoidant decision-making style.

Initial empirical evidence and theories suggest that decision-making may become more avoidant with age. However, recent studies provide inconsistent evidence for this effect. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 studies (N = 7969) to assess evidence for an association between age...

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Publicado en:European Journal of Ageing Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 1 - 17
Autores principales: Leon, Tarren, Weidemann, Gabrielle, Bailey, Phoebe E.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature 10/15/2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: 10/15/2025
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      pub: Springer Nature
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        10.1007/s10433-025-00887-5
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        atl: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between age and degrees of avoidant decision-making style.
      aug:
        au:
          Leon, Tarren
          Weidemann, Gabrielle
          Bailey, Phoebe E.
        affil:
          https://ror.org/03f0f6041 Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo Broadway, 2007, Sydney, NSW, Australia
          https://ror.org/03t52dk35 School of Psychology, Western Sydney University, Bankstown, Australia
          https://ror.org/03t52dk35 MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour, and Development, Western Sydney University, Westmead, Australia
      su:
        Australia
        Culture
        Age distribution
        Decision making
        Communities
        Emotions
        Avoidance (Psychology)
        Statistical power analysis
        Research funding
        Questionnaires
        Meta-analysis
        Systematic reviews
        MEDLINE
        Online information services
        Confidence intervals
        Psychology information storage & retrieval systems
        Publication bias
      sug:
        subj:
          Culture
          Age distribution
          Decision making
          Communities
          Emotions
          Avoidance (Psychology)
          Australia
          Statistical power analysis
          Research funding
          Questionnaires
          Meta-analysis
          Systematic reviews
          MEDLINE
          Online information services
          Confidence intervals
          Psychology information storage & retrieval systems
          Publication bias
      keyword:
        Avoidance
        Avoidant decision-making
        Decision-making style
        General decision-making styles
        Melbourne decision-making questionnaire
        Avoidance
        Avoidant decision-making
        Decision-making style
        General decision-making styles
        Melbourne decision-making questionnaire
      ab: Initial empirical evidence and theories suggest that decision-making may become more avoidant with age. However, recent studies provide inconsistent evidence for this effect. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 studies (N = 7969) to assess evidence for an association between age and avoidant decision-making style. We included studies that used the avoidant subscale of the General-Decision-Making Style (GDMS) questionnaire or the buck-passing subscale of the Melbourne Decision-Making Questionnaire (complete avoidance), or the dependent subscale of the GDMS (partial avoidance). We also assessed potential moderators of the effect, including age range for each sample, gender, culture, participant sample type, publication year, decision style subscale, and degree of avoidance (complete vs. partial). Surprisingly, the data revealed a small association between older age and less avoidant decision-making style. Moderator analysis revealed that this association applied to complete decision avoidance (the avoidant and buck-passing subscales) and not partial avoidance (the dependent subscale). Additionally, moderation by sample type suggests that decision style does not become less avoidant until after middle age. We discuss important future directions for research aimed at investigating nuances that may contribute toward avoidant decision-making style in older age.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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