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

Abstract

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.

Taking a closer look at ageism: self- and other-directed ageist attitudes and discrimination

“…In contrast, an increase in positive attitudes towards ageing resulted in a decrease in subjective age (Bodner et al 2016). This finding is important because holding a subjective age that is younger than one's chronological age has been associated with a variety of positive health and mental health outcomes (Kotter-Grühn et al 2016).…”

The role of subjective age in sustaining wellbeing and health in the second half of life

“…Building on existing theoretical and empirical findings from a long tradition in subjective age (SA) research, this paper addresses the directions of longitudinal associations between domains of SA, wellbeing and physical health in the second half of life. SA is a core indicator of the individual ageing experience, with important anticipated consequences for successful ageing in older adults (Kastenbaum et al, 1972;Kleinspehn-Ammerlahn et al, 2008;Kotter-Gruhn et al, 2016). It reflects the cultural and personal meanings that a person relates to his or her age (Laslett, 1989), and gains particular importance in the second half of life, where attitudes towards ageing are assumed to become more self-relevant than actual age (Kornadt and Rothermund, 2011;Settersten and Mayer, 1997).…”

Subjective age and risk of incident dementia: Evidence from the National Health and Aging Trends survey

“…There is, however, significant variation in the rate of aging across individuals, and a growing literature suggests an association between aging perceptions and changes in cognition and dementia-related outcomes (Levy et al, 2016; Stephan et al, 2017). Specifically, subjective age, that is how old or young people feel relative to their chronological age, captures individual differences in physiological and psychological aging (Kotter-Grühn et al, 2015) and may modulate risk of dementia. Recent research supports the hypothesis that feeling older than one’s age is related to steeper memory decline (Stephan et al, 2016) and risk of cognitive impairment and dementia (Stephan et al, 2017).…”