Subjective Aging and New Complexities of the Life Course

Abstract

How individuals evaluate their aging must be understood within a context of structural and cultural forces that transformed the human life course over the last century. This chapter applies social science perspectives to explore how structural and cultural dynamics shape the contour and content of aging and affect individual expectations and evaluations. The starting assumption is that subjective aging is largely intersubjective: How human beings experience aging is shaped by shared meanings, accumulated through lifelong socialization and feedback from persons around them. The chapter examines how subjective aging is connected to societal change in demographic and epidemiological conditions, the cultural shift toward individualization, and complex contingencies related to social relationships in contemporary life. It examines markers of becoming and being old and the degree to which subjective aging is similar or different for women and men. It closes with a discussion of how social factors can better be brought into research on subjective aging, and of how gerontologists are resistant participant observers in their own aging process and their communication about aging.

Examination of Associations Among Three Distinct Subjective Aging Constructs and Their Relevance for Predicting Developmental Correlates

“…Because the experience of aging has been shown to differ as a function of various demographic characteristics, such as socioeconomic status (Settersten & Hagestad, 2015), we included age, sex, education, and income as control variables. Education was classified into three categories based on the highest degree that was received: low (United States: high school degree or equivalent or below; GER: secondary school or below); medium (United States: Associate's or Bachelor's degree; GER: vocational training or associate degree); and high education (United States: Master's, Doctorate, Medical/ Dental, or Law degree; GER: academic degree).…”

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

“…Individuals of the same chronological age are therefore likely to experience age (ing) in different ways. The lifecourse perspective emphasises the social construction of broader life phases and associated age-based social norms (Settersten and Hagestad, 2015). Especially in cultures and life domains with more negative views on ageing, identifying with younger ages and younger age groups allows older adults to enhance their self-esteem and wellbeing (Weiss and Lang, 2012).…”

Some Things I Have Learned About Aging by Studying the Life Course

“…But there are aging men and aging women (and gender identities that are more complex), and life course experiences are heavily gendered. Men and women attach different social meanings to age and aging, use different guidelines to measure the progress of their lives, and are subject to different expectations and evaluations ( Settersten & Hagestad, 2015 ). There are also strong and persistent cultural differences in the valuation of aging bodies, including the “double standard” of aging in which the physical signs of aging often accentuate a man’s social capital but for women take it away ( Bell, 1970 ; Sontag, 1972 ).…”