It’s “the Joneses”: the influence of objective and subjective socioeconomic status on subjective perceptions of aging

Abstract

Positive subjective perceptions of aging predict various well-being, physical health, mental health, and longevity outcomes. Thus, it is important to consider what factors contribute to their formation. Socioeconomic status (SES) has been hypothesized to be one such factor, but past research has been mixed. We propose that subjective assessments of SES may better predict subjective perceptions of aging than traditional objective measures (e.g., income and education). The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of objective and subjective indicators of SES on subjective perceptions of aging. Participants (n = 296) from the Mindfulness and Anticipatory Coping Everyday study were recruited with a Human Intelligence Task on Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Participants reported on their SES (i.e., income, education, and subjective social status) and subjective perceptions of aging (i.e., attitudes toward own aging, subjective age, and awareness of age-related gains and losses). Data were analyzed via hierarchical multiple regression with demographic and health variables entered first, followed by income and education, then subjective social status. Results demonstrated that although objective measures of SES did not contribute to predicting subjective perceptions of aging, those who rated themselves subjectively higher in their community social standing were more likely to possess positive aging attitudes, younger subjective ages, more awareness of age-related gains, and fewer awareness of age-related losses. These findings suggest that perceptions of doing better than one's neighbors (i.e., "the Joneses") may matter more for understanding subjective perceptions of aging than objective indicators of social status.

UK Validation of Two Measures of Awareness of Age-Related Change (AARC)

“…This may be due to older individuals having a poorer health status than younger individuals (Aarts et al, 2012;Barnett et al, 2012). We also found that being male predicts fewer AARC gains and more AARC losses both in the AARC-10 SF and in the AARC-50 cognitive functioning subscale (Dolan, Peasgood, & White, 2008;English et al, 2019;Miche et al, 2014) and this may be due to males being less actively focused on positive changes compared to females (Kaminski & Hayslip, 2006;Moore, 2010). Indeed, research shows that positive experiences of aging among females outweigh negative experiences, despite females being aware of significant changes in their body due to menopause (Hvas, 2006).…”

“…We found that the demographic variables age, gender, marital status, employment, and university education explain some variability in levels of AARC. We found that being older predicts fewer AARC gains and more AARC losses both in the AARC-10 SF and in the AARC-50 cognitive functioning subscale (English et al, 2019). This may be due to older individuals having a poorer health status than younger individuals (Aarts et al, 2012;Barnett et al, 2012).…”

“…Amongst psychometric properties, it is important to test measurement invariance to explore whether the AARC concept is interpreted consistently in the same way across different population groups (for example, defined by age, gender, or level of education) (Brothers et al, 2016;English, Bellingtier, & Neupert, 2019). Estimated reliable comparisons of AARC scores among groups can, therefore, be potentially calculated (Carp & Carp, 1983;Gregorich, 2006;Horn & McArdle, 1992;Mackinnon et al, 1999).…”

“…Existing research in the US and Germany suggests that on average individuals who are older, less well-educated, and/or female tend to have higher levels of AARC gains and AARC losses (Brothers et al, 2016;English et al, 2019;Miche et al, 2014). Individuals who report that they are of high socioeconomic status tend to experience more AARC gains and less AARC losses than those of lower socioeconomic status (Miche et al, 2014).…”

“…Individuals who report that they are of high socioeconomic status tend to experience more AARC gains and less AARC losses than those of lower socioeconomic status (Miche et al, 2014). Other demographic variables such as marital status and employment status may also impact on levels of AARC (e.g., Barrett, 2005;English et al, 2019).…”