"I felt so old this morning." Short-term variations in subjective age and the role of trait subjective age: Evidence from the ILSE/EMIL ecological momentary assessment data.

Subjective age, how old people feel compared to their chronological age, is a central indicator of age identity and highly predictive for developmental outcomes. While mostly used as a trait-like concept in previous research, recent studies employing experimental designs and daily assessments suggest that subjective age can vary after experimental manipulations or between days. However, less is known about whether subjective age varies over even shorter time frames such as within moments on a given day, how such short-term variability differs by age and its association with trait subjective age. We examined these questions with data obtained from 123 young-old (Mage = 67.19 years) and 47 old-old adults (Mage = 86.59 years) who reported their momentary subjective age six times a day over 7 consecutive days as they were going about their everyday lives. Participants felt younger on a large majority of occasions, and 25% of the total variability in subjective age could be attributed to within-person variation. Within-person variability in subjective age amounted to an average of about 3 years from one moment to the next and did not differ between age groups. However, those with younger trait subjective ages exhibited larger moment-to-moment variation. Our findings extend the literature on subjective age by showing that how old people feel can vary on a momentary basis and that state and trait components of subjective age are related. Further research should investigate the contextual predictors of variability in subjective age and the links between trait and state concepts and developmental outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Preparation for Old Age: The Role of Cultural Context and Future Perceptions.

OBJECTIVES: Preparation for age-related changes is a central task in midlife and older age and a determinant of functioning and well-being in later life. If and how people prepare is influenced by societal and institutional circumstances and also by beliefs about aging and the future. METHOD: We assessed domain-specific preparation for age-related changes in samples from three countries with high population aging but different premises regarding preparation, and analyzed data from N = 1,830 individuals aged 35-85 years from urban regions in Germany, the United States, as well as China (Hong Kong). RESULTS: Preparation was universally low in China, but the amount of differences between countries varied depending on life domain. While we found pronounced differences between all three countries for domains related to public provision (such as health care, work, and finances), East-West differences in preparation emerged for domains regarding social relations and end-of-life concerns. The concreteness of time perspective and future self-views mediated country differences in preparation. DISCUSSION: Our results speak for the culture-specificity of preparing for old age and we deliver evidence on psychological variables that might explain these differences.

On the genetic and environmental sources of social and political participation in adolescence and early adulthood.

Political participation (POP), social participation (SOP), and political interest (PI) are important indicators of social status and social inequality. Previous studies on related trait differences yielded genetic and environmental contributions. However, focusing on adult samples, classical twin designs, and convenience samples often restricts parameter estimation and generalizability, and limits the understanding of age differences. We investigated sources of variance in POP, SOP, and PI in late adolescence and early adulthood with an extended twin family design (ETFD). We analyzed data from over 2,000 representative German twin families. Individual environments not shared by family members reflected the major source of variance for all variables, but genetic influences were also pronounced. Genetic effects were mostly higher for young adults, whereas effects of twins' shared environment were significant in adolescence. Our study deepens the understanding of the interplay between genetic and environmental factors in shaping differences in young persons' integration in society.

Subjective remaining lifetime and concreteness of the future as differential predictors of preparation for age-related changes.

Demographic changes have been linked to the expectation of cuts in government-provided social security services, emphasizing individual responsibility to prepare for old age and concomitant challenges and changes. Accordingly, the identification of psychological variables predicting preparation is a matter of theoretical as well as practical importance. We thus consider different aspects of a person's future time as theoretically prominent psychological predictors of preparation. The subjectively perceived quantity of remaining lifetime, the concreteness of future time, and preparation for life domains indicative of an active third age as well as of a more dependent fourth age were assessed in a longitudinal study in a core sample of N = 593 participants (30-80 years old at T1) at two measurement occasions 4 years apart. The quantity of subjective remaining lifetime predicted subsequent changes in preparation, but this effect was restricted to preparation for the fourth age. In contrast, a more open and concrete outlook on ones' personal future predicted changes in preparation for an active third age. Our findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between different aspects of future time-its quantity versus its relation to goals and action plans-when predicting specific facets of developmental self-regulation.

What Drives the Development of Social Inequality Over the Life Course? The German TwinLife Study.

The German twin family study 'TwinLife' was designed to enhance our understanding of the development of social inequalities over the life course. The interdisciplinary project investigates mechanisms of social inequalities across the lifespan by taking into account psychological as well as social mechanisms, and their genetic origin as well as the interaction and covariation between these factors. Main characteristics of the study are: (1) a multidimensional perspective on social inequalities, (2) the assessment of developmental trajectories in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood in a longitudinal design by using (3) a combination of a multi-cohort cross-sequential and an extended twin family design, while (4) capturing a large variation of behavioral and environmental factors in a representative sample of about 4,000 German twin families. In the present article, we first introduce the theoretical and empirical background of the TwinLife study, and second, describe the design, content, and implementation of TwinLife. Since the data will be made available as scientific use file, we also illustrate research possibilities provided by this project to the scientific community.