Subjective perceptions of age-related gains buffer negative associations of perceived age-related losses with health, well-being, and engagement

Abstract

People reflect on their own aging, and this subjective awareness has an influence on developmental outcomes. Scholars have recently operationalized subjective aging in terms of awareness of age-related change (AARC), which captures awareness of both gains and losses. We examined associations of AARC-gains and AARC-losses with physical functioning, subjective well-being, and engagement with life (enjoyable activities and sense of purpose). Importantly, we extended previous research by not only assessing main effects of gains and losses but also testing their interaction. We hypothesized that awareness of losses would be more weakly negatively associated with health and well-being among those who possessed higher awareness of gains. A total of 399 older participants aged 65 to 91 (235 women and 164 men) were recruited via Prime Panels crowd-sourcing platform to complete an online questionnaire. Greater AARC-losses was associated with poorer health, lower subjective well-being, and lower sense of purpose. AARC-gains was associated with better outcomes in general, and moderated associations of AARC-losses with physical functioning, subjective well-being, and sense of purpose (but not engagement in leisure activities). Consistent with predictions, moderation effects showed that negative associations of AARC-losses with the outcomes were weaker among those who reported higher AARC-gains. Results provided some support for a role of AARC-gains in buffering negative effects of AARC-losses on developmental outcomes.

Subjective views of aging in very old age: Predictors of 2-year change in gains and losses.

“…With respect to indicators of engagement with life as a predictor of VoA, Chen et al (2018) reported that a younger subjective age mediated the effect of higher leisure-time physical activity on self-rated memory. Recent work by Montepare (2020) and Windsor et al (2021) reported significant cross-sectional associations of age awareness and awareness of age-related change (AARC) with a broader scope of activities that tap different aspects of engagement with life, such as social activities with younger or older individuals, planning, or lifestyle activities. Specifically, stronger associations were found between engagement with life and AARC Gains compared to AARC Losses (Windsor et al, 2021).…”

“…For example, we speculated that the loss of a spouse or discontinuities in leisure activities would have considerable influence on changing VoA. Finally, only the study by Windsor et al (2021) assessed differential effects of potential antecedents on negative and positive aspects of VoA, though only in a cross-sectional way.…”

“…Recent work by Montepare (2020) and Windsor et al (2021) reported significant cross-sectional associations of age awareness and awareness of age-related change (AARC) with a broader scope of activities that tap different aspects of engagement with life, such as social activities with younger or older individuals, planning, or lifestyle activities. Specifically, stronger associations were found between engagement with life and AARC Gains compared to AARC Losses (Windsor et al, 2021). As the lives of aging partners are usually closely connected, each partner's perceptions of their age should naturally affect subjective age appraisals of their spouse (Avidor et al, 2021), particularly in long-established and in emotionally close marriages (Mejía et al, 2020).…”

Levels of awareness of age-related gains and losses throughout adulthood and their developmental correlates.

“…Lower AARC-losses were also found to be related to greater self-efficacy and predisposition to focus on the present (Dutt & Wahl, 2019; Dutt, Wahl, & Rupprecht, 2018). Finally, higher AARC-gains and lower AARC-losses are related to greater social support (O’Brien & Sharifian, 2020), satisfaction with one’s relationships (Kaspar et al, 2019), and engagement in physical exercise and enjoyable activities (Brothers & Diehl, 2017; Windsor et al, 2022).…”

Percepción actitudinal subjetiva de estudiantes de establecimientos de nivel secundario de hacia los profe-sores de educación física (Subjective attitudinal perception of students from secondary level establishments towards physical education teachers)

“…La valoración de percepción subjetiva es una herramienta válida y confiable (Pérez-Contreras et al, 2022) para la establecer el bienestar personal (López-Walle et al, 2020), salud (Ramos-Narváes et al, 2020) y el envejecimiento (Windsor et al, 2022) de las personas, es una alternativa de evaluación, que puede ser, una gran ayuda en los sistemas escolares, para conocer la percepción que tiene el alumnado sobre el profesorado. Estudios previos que han analizado la percepción subjetiva del estudiantado sobre el profesorado de EF en temas referidos a la satisfacción con la clase (Carcamo-Oyarzun et al, 2017), la motivación (Blanco et al, 2019), los procesos didácticos de la clase de EF y percepción del profesorado de EF (Gaviria y Castejón, 2016) por parte del alumnado.…”