Self-reported hearing and awareness of age-related change : A domain-specific perspective.

BACKGROUND: Impaired hearing is associated with disadvantages in developmental outcomes, such as compromised everyday social communication or reduced well-being. Hearing impairment might also have an impact on how individuals evaluate their own aging as deterioration in hearing can be interpreted as being age-related and as a phenomenon individuals attribute to getting older. OBJECTIVE: This study investigated how self-reported hearing is related to awareness of age-related change (AARC). MATERIAL AND METHODS: AARC is a multidimensional construct comprising perceived age-related gains and losses in general as well as across five functional domains (health and physical functioning, cognitive functioning, interpersonal relations, social cognitive and social emotional functioning, lifestyle and engagement). A sample of 423 individuals (age range 40-98 years; mean age, M = 62.9 years; standard deviation (SD) = 11.8 years) was assessed up to 3 times over approximately 5 years. RESULTS: Based on longitudinal multilevel regression models, controlling for age, gender, subjective health and education, it was found that poorer self-reported hearing was associated with more perceived general AARC losses as well as with more AARC losses in health and physical functioning and in cognitive functioning at baseline. With an older age at baseline, poorer self-reported hearing was associated with a steeper decline in AARC gains regarding interpersonal relations over time, whereas in those who were younger at baseline poorer hearing was related to fewer gains in social cognitive and social emotional functioning at baseline. DISCUSSION: Self-reported hearing reveals differential associations with AARC domains; however, changes in most AARC domains of gains and losses seem to be only weakly related to subjective hearing.

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.

Implicit and Explicit Age Stereotypes for Specific Life Domains Across the Life Span: Distinct Patterns and Age Group Differences.

BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Drawing on research that shows the importance of age stereotypes across the life span, the authors investigated domain-specific implicit and explicit age stereotypes in different age groups. METHODS: Implicit (Implicit Association Test [IAT]; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464-1480) and explicit age stereotypes were assessed for the domains of family and health in a sample of N = 90 younger, middle-aged, and older adults. RESULTS: Overall, age stereotypes were negative for the health domain but not for the family domain. Distinct patterns of age group differences emerged depending on domain and assessment method. In the family domain, older participants held the least positive explicit age stereotypes, whereas implicit stereotypes in this domain were most positive for this age group compared with the young and middle-aged groups. For the health domain, implicit and explicit age associations indicated that middle-aged participants showed the most negative age-associations. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that implicit and explicit age stereotypes in different life domains represent largely independent constructs. Differential age group effects are assumed to reflect the result of accommodative and assimilative processes that are used to cope with age-related changes. Implications for future studies of implicit and explicit age stereotypes and their influence on developmental regulation are discussed.

Looking Beyond Chronological Age: Current Knowledge and Future Directions in the Study of Subjective Age.

The notion of the heterogeneity of aging goes along with the awareness that every person experiences aging differently. Over the past years, scholars have emphasized that the assessment of these subjective experiences of aging contributes to our understanding of a range of psychological and physiological processes and outcomes among older adults. One construct frequently used in this context is subjective age, that is, how old or young a person feels. Subjective age has been shown to be an important correlate as well as a predictor of markers of successful aging such as well-being, health, and longevity. However, less is known about the antecedents of subjective age and the mechanisms underlying the relationship between feeling younger and positive developmental outcomes. This article briefly summarizes and critically evaluates the empirical evidence on this topic and makes suggestions on how to address and potentially overcome currently existing theoretical, methodological, and psychometric challenges. Based on the discussion of these challenges, the paper provides directions for future research by outlining underexplored topics such as intraindividual variability and determinants of subjective age, the match between objective age indicators and subjective age, and how subjective age maps on behavior and functioning.

Postponing old age: Evidence for historical change toward a later perceived onset of old age.

"At what age would you describe someone as old?" Perceptions of when old age begins might be prone to upward shifts because of historical increases in life expectancy and in retirement age, as well as because of better psychosocial functioning in later life. We investigated historical changes in within-person trajectories of the perceived onset of old age using data from 14,056 participants who entered the German Ageing Survey at age 40-85 years and who completed up to eight assessments across 25 years. Using longitudinal multilevel regression models, we found that at age 64, the average perceived onset of old age is at about age 75 years. Longitudinally, this perceived onset age increased by about 1 year for every 4-5 years of actual aging. We also found evidence for historical change. Compared to the earliest-born cohorts, later-born cohorts reported a later perceived onset of old age, yet with decelerating trend among more recent birth cohorts. Within-person increases of the perceived onset of old age were steeper in later-born cohorts. The described cohort trends were only slightly reduced when controlling for covariates. Being younger, male, living in East Germany, feeling older, reporting more loneliness, more chronic diseases, and poorer self-rated health were each associated with a perceived earlier onset of old age. Our results suggest that there is a nonlinear historical trend toward a later perceived onset of old age, which might have meaningful implications for individuals' perspectives on aging and old age. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Cultural Differences in Daily Coupling of Subjective Views of Aging and Negative Affect.

OBJECTIVES: The established link between subjective views of aging (VoA) and well-being shows variations across different cultures. Although VoA show daily fluctuations, little is known about cultural differences in such fluctuations and the daily coupling of VoA and well-being. We compared Israeli Arabs to Israeli Jews in the daily coupling of VoA and negative affect (NA). METHODS: Community-dwelling older adults (N = 76, Mage = 66.71) completed measures of subjective age, subjective accelerated aging, ageist attitudes, and NA over 14 consecutive days. RESULTS: Respondents reported higher daily NA when they felt older, reported to be aging faster, or had more ageist attitudes. The daily coupling between subjective age/subjective accelerated aging and NA was stronger among Israeli Arabs compared to Israeli Jews. There was no such interaction with ageist attitudes. DISCUSSION: It is important to adopt a cultural perspective when investigating daily fluctuations in VoA and their correlates. In applied contexts, this might help to identify cultural groups that are particularly sensitive to the effects of VoA.

Successful Aging and Subjective Aging: Toward a Framework to Research a Neglected Connection.

Research related to subjective aging, which describes how individuals perceive, interpret and evaluate their own aging, has substantially grown in the past two decades. Evidence from longitudinal studies shows that subjective aging predicts health, quality of life, and functioning in later life. However, the existing literature on successful aging has mostly neglected the role of subjective aging. This paper proposes an extended framework of successful aging linking subjective aging conceptually and empirically to Rowe and Kahn's (1997) three original key criteria of successful aging (i.e., avoiding disease and disability, maintaining high cognitive and physical function, and engagement with life). A particular focus is placed on subjective aging as an antecedent of successful aging. A review of the empirical subjective aging literature shows that subjective aging concepts consistently predict all three of Rowe and Kahn's criteria of successful aging. Mechanisms underlying these relations are discussed at three levels, namely psychological, behavioral, and physiological pathways. The proposed addition also takes into consideration the interconnections between subjective aging and successful aging throughout the lifespan and across historical time. Finally, we discuss the importance of facilitating successful aging through systematic interventions that support more positive views of aging at the individual and societal level.

Internalization or Dissociation? Negative Age Stereotypes Make You Feel Younger Now But Make You Feel Older Later.

OBJECTIVES: Negative age stereotypes have negative, assimilative effects on the subjective aging experience due to internalization processes, but sometimes positive contrast effects are reported as well, reflecting dissociation and downward comparisons. Our aim was thus to compare short-term and long-term consequences of age stereotypes on the subjective aging experience, to test the hypothesis that contrast effects are visible cross-sectionally, whereas internalization processes are observed when considering long-term changes. METHODS: We assessed age stereotypes and subjective age in a core sample of N = 459 participants (initial age range 30-80 years) from the Ageing as Future project across 3 consecutive measurement occasions spanning a longitudinal interval of 10 years. Short-term and long-term effects were estimated with latent growth models by assessing the effects of age stereotypes on the intercepts (cross-sectional) and on the slopes (longitudinal) of subjective age, respectively, while controlling for current self-views. RESULTS: Age stereotypes had opposite effects on subjective age depending on the time frame. A cross-sectional contrast effect was found, whereas longitudinal effects were assimilative in nature. DISCUSSION: Our findings support the time-dependent nature of the effects of age stereotypes on the subjective aging experience. Negative age stereotypes temporarily lead to a significantly younger subjective age, indicating dissociation from one's age group and downward comparison. In the long run, however, negative (positive) age stereotypes become internalized into the self-views of older people and are linked to a relatively older (younger) subjective age.

A Chip Off the Old Block? The Relationship of Family Factors and Young Adults' Views on Aging.

Views on aging (VoA), such as self-perceptions of aging or age stereotypes are generated in early childhood and continue to develop throughout the entire lifespan. The ideas a person has about their own aging and aging in general influence their behavior toward older persons as well as their own actual aging, which is why VoA are already important in adolescence and young adulthood. The current study investigates VoA of young adults in different domains (continued growth, physical decline, social loss) and how different family aspects are related to VoA. From February to March 2021, N = 305 young adults [aged 18-30 years, M age(SD) = 22.20 (2.60)] participated in an online survey, in which, in addition to sociodemographic variables and family aspects (contact with grandparents, family age climate, i.e., the frequency and valence of talking about age in the family), self-perceptions of aging, age stereotypes, and the young adults' ratings of their parents' VoA were assessed. The results of stepwise regression analyses predicting the young adults' VoA, revealed significant associations between the quality of contact with grandparents and the self-perceptions of aging of young adults. However, the frequency of contact was neither related to young adults' self-perceptions of aging nor age stereotypes. Grandparents' health status emerged as a significant moderator between the relationship of contact quality and the young adults' self-perceptions of aging as continued growth and physical decline. Family climate was also found to be significantly related to young adults' self-perceptions of aging. Similarities regarding VoA within the family were demonstrated, based on proxy report from the respondents. The results underline the importance of family aspects for the development of VoA in young adulthood, and the significance of interventions targeting these factors to combat ageism.

Awareness of Age-Related Changes Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Longitudinal Trajectories, and the Role of Age Stereotypes and Personality Traits.

Awareness of Age-Related Change (AARC) describes to what extent people become aware of changes which they attribute to getting older. So far little is known regarding how different AARC dimensions change over time, to what extent these changes in different domains of AARC gains and losses are interrelated, and which predictors account for inter-individual differences in within-person longitudinal trajectories. Specifically, the extent to which individuals perceive age-related gains and losses might be shaped by their chronological age, their personality as well as by their general views on aging (i.e., their age stereotypes). We investigated changes in global and domain-specific AARC gains and losses over about five years in a sample of originally N = 423 participants aged 40 to 98 years at baseline. We analyzed the role of personality traits and age stereotypes for levels and changes of AARC, taking into account participants' age at baseline and controlling for gender, education, and subjective health. Based on longitudinal multilevel regression models, we observed mean-level declines in most AARC gain domains. In contrast, perceived general AARC losses, as well as AARC losses in health and physical functioning, in cognitive functioning and in social-cognitive/socio-emotional functioning remained, on average, stable over time. Baseline scores on AARC gains (global scale) were higher among individuals with higher neuroticism, openness, conscientiousness and more positive age stereotypes. Additionally, the association of higher neuroticism with higher AARC gain scores was stronger among individuals with more positive age stereotypes. Higher neuroticism and more negative age stereotypes also predicted higher baseline scores on AARC losses (global scale). At the same time, higher neuroticism was associated with a steeper decrease in AARC loss perceptions over time. Most of the intercorrelations within the intercepts and within the intra-individual trajectories of the different AARC domains were positive, but small in size. Our findings show the importance of considering trajectories of age-related gains and losses in parallel and across multiple developmental domains when investigating the subjective perception of the aging process. They also suggest that personality traits and general age stereotypes are related with individual experiences of aging.

Personality and subjective age: Evidence from six samples.

Subjective age is associated with health-related outcomes across adulthood. The present study examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between personality traits and subjective age. Participants (N > 31,000) were from the Midlife in the United States Study (MIDUS), the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), the National Health and Aging Study (NHATS), the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study Graduate (WLSG) and Siblings (WLSS) samples, and the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA). Demographic factors, personality traits, and subjective age were assessed at baseline. Subjective age was assessed again in the MIDUS, the HRS, and the NHATS, 4 to almost 20 years later. Across the samples and a meta-analysis, higher neuroticism was related to an older subjective age, whereas higher extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were associated with a younger subjective age. Self-rated health, physical activity, chronic conditions, and depressive symptoms partially mediated these relationships. There was little evidence that chronological age moderated these associations. Multilevel longitudinal analyses found similar associations with the intercept and weak evidence for an association with the slope in the opposite of the expected direction: Lower neuroticism and higher extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were related to feeling relatively older over time. The present study provides replicable evidence that personality is related to subjective age. It extends existing conceptualization of subjective age as a biopsychosocial marker of aging by showing that how old or young individuals feel partly reflects personality traits. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

A longitudinal study of the effects of well-being and perceived control on preparations for old age: moderation effects of contexts.

Extending research on determinants of preparations for old age across adulthood, we examined the relationship between well-being, perceived control, and preparations for old age over time, along with variation in the strength of these relationships depending on domains of functioning, cultures, and age. We analyzed longitudinal data from the Ageing as Future study assessing changes in well-being, perceived control, and preparations in four different life domains (social relations, finances, work, and health) across a five-year period collected from adults aged from 30 to 85 years in Germany (N = 623), Hong Kong (N = 317), and the USA (N = 315). Positive feelings about one's current situation predicted greater perceived control five years later, and vice versa. Also, perceived control and preparations were positively associated over time, with only a few exceptions within each domain. For example, high control beliefs were related to subsequent greater preparations and well-being within the domain of social relations and finances, with weak effects of culture. These results suggest that current well-being may promote adaptive behaviors in later life, with the accumulated effects over time. Thus, focusing on how to improve our well-being may promote engagement in preparations for old age. Our results also indicate that these relations in our model vary by contexts, highlighting the importance of variability in age-related processes.

Subjective age, worry and risk-related perceptions in older adults in times of a pandemic.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, older people have been in the spotlight of the public debate. Given their higher risk of severe outcomes of the disease, they have been described as especially vulnerable and as a burden to others and society. We thus wanted to investigate how older people's perception of their own age, that is their subjective age, as well as their Covid-19 related risks and worries were related during the pandemic and whether these relationships varied according to participants' subjective health. We used data from the longitudinal CRISIS study which was conducted in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg in June and October 2020. Participants were aged 60-98 and responded on questionnaires regarding their subjective age, worry of falling ill with Covid-19, perceived risk of contracting the virus, perceived risk of falling seriously ill if they contracted Covid-19, as well as their subjective health and covariates. Three cross-lagged panel models were constructed to explore the longitudinal, bidirectional relationships between the variables. Cross-sectionally, a higher subjective age was related to more perceived risk of a serious course of disease. Longitudinally, subjective age and worry did not show any significant association over time, and neither did subjective age and perceived risk of contracting the virus. However, subjective health significantly moderated the relationship of worry and subjective age, showing different trajectories in the relationship depending on whether subjective health was good or bad. Higher perceived risk of falling seriously ill increased subjective age over time. Again, subjective health moderated this relationship: the perceived risk of falling seriously ill affected subjective age only for those with better subjective health. Our findings show the interactive relationship between subjective age and Covid-19 related cognitions and emotions and provide guidance for identifying older people that are most susceptible for negative age-related communication during the pandemic.

Momentary subjective age is associated with perceived and physiological stress in the daily lives of old and very old adults.

Subjective age, that is the age people feel in relation to their chronological age, can vary on a day-to-day and even momentary basis. Previous long-term and daily-diary studies have shown that elevated stress covaries with older subjective age. However, it is an open question whether such links can also be observed at the momentary level within a given day and go beyond self-reports of stress. Moving ahead, we investigated how two indicators of stress (self-reported: perceived stress; physiological: salivary cortisol) are associated with the age people feel on a momentary basis. We examined data from 118 older (Mage = 66.67 years) and 36 very old adults (Mage = 85.92 years) who reported their momentary subjective age and perceived stress and also provided saliva samples up to seven times a day over seven consecutive days. Dynamic structural equation models showed that both higher momentary perceived stress and higher cortisol levels preceding the measurement predicted an older momentary subjective age. In contrast, subjective age at the previous measurement did not predict subsequent stress. These effects were moderated by participant age group and grip strength, albeit not consistently. Our results corroborate and extend earlier findings that both self-reported and physiological stress are important explanatory variables for people's subjective age variation even on relatively short time scales and shed light on differential time-ordered dynamics between stress and subjective age in daily life. Findings also inform theoretical models of subjective age that highlight the importance of contextual, momentary influences on how old people feel and help better understand how biological and psychological processes are intertwined in later life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Longitudinal associations between perceived stress and views on aging: Evidence for reciprocal relations.

Views on aging (VoA) are meaningful predictors of well-being, health, cognitive impairment, and mortality. One underlying pathway could be that negative VoA promote perceived stress. However, little is known about the role of stress perceptions as an antecedent of personal VoA. In this study, we therefore investigated the longitudinal reciprocal association between perceived stress and three established constructs representing personal VoA: (a) subjective age; (b) attitude toward own aging (ATOA); and (c) aging-related cognitions comprising social loss, physical decline, and continuous growth. We also examined whether these associations are moderated by chronological age. Two adjacent measurement occasions (2014 and 2017) of the German Ageing Survey with 4,588 individuals aged between 40 and 95 years were analyzed. Cross-lagged models controlling for VoA and perceived stress at baseline, chronological age, subjective health, depressive symptoms, education, gender, region of residence, and year of individual study entry revealed significant reciprocal longitudinal relations between VoA and perceived stress. For three of the five VoA indicators, the pathway from perceived stress to subsequent VoA was of the same magnitude as the reversed pathway. With increasing chronological age, ATOA was less strongly associated with subsequent stress perceptions. Moreover, the impact of higher perceived stress on an older subjective age was weaker with advancing age. In conclusion, the trend in prior subjective aging research to conceptualize stress in midlife and old age exclusively as a consequence of VoA needs reconsideration, as higher perceived stress levels also seem to be a risk factor for less favorable personal VoA. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceived Ageism During the Covid-19-Crisis Is Longitudinally Related to Subjective Perceptions of Aging.

Ageism in media and society has increased sharply during the Covid-19-crisis, with expected negative consequences for the health and well-being of older adults. The current study investigates whether perceived ageism during the crisis longitudinally affects how people perceive their own aging. In June 2020, N = 611 older adults from Luxembourg [aged 60-98 years, Mage (SD) = 69.92(6.97)] participated in a survey on their perception of the crisis. In October 2020, N = 523 participated in a second measurement occasion. Participants reported on perceived ageism during the crisis in different domains, their self-perceptions of aging and subjective age. In latent longitudinal regression models, we predicted views on aging at T2 with perceived ageism at T1, while controlling for baseline views on aging and covariates. Perceived ageism at T1 increased self-perceptions of aging as social loss and yielded a trend for physical decline, while there were no effects on subjective age and self-perceptions of aging as continued growth. Views on aging are powerful predictors of well-being and health outcomes in later life. Our data suggest that being the target of ageism during the crisis negatively affects older adults' self-perceptions of aging and this impact may be felt beyond the current crisis.

Ageism and older people's health and well-being during the Covid-19-pandemic: the moderating role of subjective aging.

In the Covid-19 pandemic, being older means being in a special focus: Probabilities for severe infections and mortality rise with increasing age and protective measures for this population group have been increased. This was accompanied by public discourse that portrayed older adults stereotypically as vulnerable and frail but also highlighted the hardships younger people have to endure to protect them. Given the possibly detrimental effects of ageism on individuals and societies, we were interested in older adults' perception of ageism in the Corona-crisis and its relation to their health and well-being. Furthermore, we were interested in subjective aging variables as moderators in the ageism-health relationship. In June 2020, N = 611 independently living people aged 60 + from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg were recruited via a survey research institute and interviewed online or by phone. They reported on perceived ageism in different contexts, their life satisfaction, subjective health, subjective age and self-perceptions of aging. Depending on context, ageism was perceived by around 20% of participants, and overall negatively related to subjective health and life satisfaction after the onset of the pandemic. Moderated hierarchical regressions showed that a younger subjective age buffered the negative effect of ageism on subjective health, while perceiving aging as social loss increased its effect on life satisfaction. We discuss the importance of addressing and reducing ageism (not only) in times of crisis and the consequences for individuals and societies.

The Effects of Age Stereotypes on Physical and Mental Health Are Mediated by Self-perceptions of Aging.

OBJECTIVES: Although the evidence linking views on aging (VoA) with aging outcomes is robust, little is known about how different types of VoA may interact to influence such outcomes. Therefore, this study examined two types of VoA, age stereotypes (AS), representing general VoA, and self-perceptions of aging (SPA), representing personal VoA. We operationalized SPA in terms of awareness of age-related change (AARC), distinguishing between gain- and loss-related SPA (e.g., awareness of positive and negative age-related changes, respectively). Based on theoretical reasoning, we hypothesized that AS would be an antecedent of SPA, and that the effect of AS on physical and mental health would be mediated by SPA. METHOD: A total of 819 German and U.S. adults aged 40-98 completed a survey on VoA, physical health, and mental health at baseline and 2.5 years later. Structural equation modeling with latent variables was used to examine the effects of Time 1 AS (predictor) and Time 2 gain- and loss-related SPA (mediators) on physical and mental health outcomes. RESULTS: As hypothesized, AS predicted later SPA. Loss-related SPA mediated the effect of AS on physical health; both gain- and loss-related SPA mediated the effect of AS on mental health. DISCUSSION: Congruent with theoretical assumptions, our findings provide empirical support for a directional pathway by which AS shape later SPA. We conclude that AS and SPA may affect physical health outcomes more strongly than mental health outcomes. Studies that assess both types of VoA are needed to illuminate the pathways by which VoA influence aging outcomes.

Correction to: The uniqueness of subjective ageing: convergent and discriminant validity.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s10433-019-00529-7.].

Correction to: Views on ageing: a lifespan perspective.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s10433-019-00535-9.].