Future time perspective and awareness of age-related change: Examining their role in predicting psychological well-being.

Abstract

This study examined how two distinct facets of perceived personal lifetime – future time perspective (FTP) and awareness of age-related change (AARC) – are associated with one another, and how they may interact to predict psychological well-being. To better understand associations among subjective perceptions of lifetime, aging and well-being, we tested a series of models to investigate questions of directionality, indirect effects, and conditional processes among FTP, AARC-Gains, AARC-Losses, and psychological well-being. In all models, we tested for differences between middle-aged and older adults, and between adults from the U.S. and Germany. Analyses were conducted within a structural equation modeling framework on a cross-national, 2.5-year longitudinal sample of 537 community-residing adults (age 40–98 years). Awareness of age-related losses (AARC-Losses) at Time 1 predicted FTP at Time 2, but FTP did not predict AARC-Gains or AARC-Losses. Furthermore, future time perspective mediated the association between AARC-Losses and well-being. Moderation analyses revealed a buffering effect of awareness of age-related gains (AARC-Gains) in which perceptions of more age-related gains diminished the negative effect of a limited future time perspective on well-being. Effects were robust across age groups and countries. Taken together, these findings suggest that perceived age-related loss experiences may sensitize individuals to perceive a more limited future lifetime which may then lead to lower psychological well-being. In contrast, perceived age-related gains may function as a resource to preserve psychological well-being, in particular when time is perceived as running out.

Subjective Time Perceptions and Aging Well: A Review of Concepts and Empirical Research - A Mini-Review

“…With regard to "duration/expansion" of subjective time, it is interesting that despite the motivational shift toward emotion-oriented goals posited by SST, studies examining relations between future time expansion and well-being have emerged only recently in the empirical literature. This body of findings suggests that a more restricted view of the future is linked to lower well-being [22] . Understanding the underlying mechanisms of this association (e.g., resource limitations that may impede emotional goal achievement or failure to preserve an openness for new opportunities) requires further empirical research.…”

“…With regard to expansion of future time , studies have accumulated showing that an expanded future time perspective is associated with higher levels of well-being as indicated by higher positive affect and life satisfaction as well as less negative affect and fewer depressive symptoms [21][22][23] . Likewise, an expanded future time perspective was found to be linked to a reduced risk of mortality 6.5 years later [24] .…”

Well-being and associated factors among elementary school teachers in southern Brazil

“…Comparing the well-being prevalence of teachers interviewed (79.5%) to the adolescent population, using the same method of measurement, the proportion of well-being observed was higher in the group of youngsters (85.3 and 89.6%) 5,22 . Sociocultural characteristics related to the different age groups investigated may explain the small difference, since a lower well-being perception was related to perceived age-related loss of the human development cycle 23 . In adolescence, performance scores related to quality of life are higher than in adult life 24 .…”

National Guarantor for the Rights of People Detained or Deprived of their Liberty and Vulnerability of the Elderly

“…Here we intend to draw attention to those clichés addressed to more mature people; they are marginalised through insidious social practices that can produce harmful effects on the general conditions of well-being (Levy& MacDonald, 2016); moreover, victims are far from the world of work and, sometimes, little followed by social services. These wayswill probably condition the dynamics of interaction by imposing a negative approach on the future well-being improvement and the «old person» sociality from a double point of view: from his side, where future is in decline (Brothers, Gabrian, Wahl & Diehl 2016;Brothers, Chui & Diehl, 2014) and from actors who do not imagine the possibility of building a positive social network. This is evident in some therapeutic relationships: health care professionals tend to choose treatment strategies taking into account the patient's life expectancy.…”