The Role of Attitude Toward Own Aging for Fluid and Crystallized Functioning: 12-Year Evidence From the ILSE Study

Siebert, Jelena; Wahl, Hans‐Werner; Schröder, Johannes

doi:10.1093/geronb/gbw050

Cited by 40 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…For instance, people who report a younger SA generally indicate better psychological well-being, health and cognitive functioning and even lower mortality (for recent examples, see Kotter-Grühn et al 2009 ; Stephan et al 2011 , 2013 ). Similarly, several studies have demonstrated that scores on the ATOA predict physical and cognitive functioning or mortality over and above, for example, self-efficacy, self-rated health (Siebert et al 2018 ; Tovel et al 2019 ) or hope (Levy et al 2002 ). Scores on the AgeCog scales have been found to be longitudinally related to health over and above control beliefs (Wurm et al 2007 ) and to physical exercise (Wurm et al 2010 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The uniqueness of subjective ageing: convergent and discriminant validity

Spuling

Klusmann

Bowen³

et al. 2019

Eur J Ageing

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Although a large body of research has demonstrated the predictive power of subjective ageing for several decisive developmental outcomes, there remains some controversy about whether subjective ageing truly represents a unique construct. Thus, information about the convergent and discriminant validity of different approaches to measuring subjective ageing is still critically needed. Using data from the 2014 wave of the German Ageing Survey, we examined how three established subjective ageing measures (subjective age, global attitude toward own ageing, multidimensional ageing-related cognitions) were inter-related as well as distinct from general dispositions (optimism, self-efficacy) and well-being (negative affect, depressive symptoms, self-rated health). Using correlational and multivariate regression analysis, we found that the three subjective ageing measures were significantly inter-related ( r = |.09| to |.30|), and that each measure was distinct from general dispositions and well-being. The overlap with dispositional and well-being measures was lowest for subjective age and highest for global attitudes towards own ageing. The correlation between global attitudes towards own ageing and optimism was particularly striking. Despite the high convergent validity of the different dimensions of ageing cognitions, we nevertheless observed stronger associations between specific dimensions of ageing cognitions with negative affect and self-rated health. We conclude that researchers should be aware of the multidimensional nature of subjective ageing. Furthermore, subjective age appears to be a highly aggregated construct and future work is needed to clarify its correlates and reference points. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10433-019-00529-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The uniqueness of subjective ageing: convergent and discriminant validity

Spuling

Klusmann

Bowen³

et al. 2019

Eur J Ageing

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“…Moreover, while previous findings indicated that subjective age may be associated with changes in general health, cognitive functioning (Demakakos et al , 2007; Stephan et al , 2011) and wellbeing (Keyes and Westerhof, 2012), and may be also affected by daily events (Kotter-Grühn et al , 2015), the list of reasons to feel old included in the survey was limited to a few of these conditions. Furthermore, constructs such as attitudes towards own ageing, awareness of age-related change and subjective nearness/distance to death may mediate subjective perceptions of ageing (Brothers et al , 2017; Siebert et al , 2018). Therefore, it is possible that they also play a role in attributing significance to the specific experiences people associate with their ageing process.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forever young? An analysis of the factors influencing perceptions of ageing

Bordone

Arpino

Rosina³

2019

Ageing and Society

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AbstractDrawing on the revived literature on the subjective dimension of ageing, this paper investigates whether people aged 65+, usually defined as old, do actually feel old and which events they associate with feeling old. Logistic models are used on unique data from the 2013 survey called ‘I Do Not Want to Be Inactive’, conducted on individuals aged 65–74 in Italy (N = 828). It is found that a large proportion of respondents do not feel old at all. The analyses show that women are more likely than men to feel old and to think that society considers them old. While men feel old mainly when they retire, women associate this feeling with loneliness, loss of independence and death of loved ones. Higher-educated people are less likely to associate feeling old with loneliness and boredom than their lower-educated counterparts. The findings have important implications for the conceptualisation of ageing. Most people who are old according to the standard threshold of 65 do not consider reaching this age as a distinctive marker of old age in their lifecourse. This suggests that absolute thresholds for setting the start of old age are questionable. Feeling old seems to be mainly influenced by events, such as retirement and death of loved ones, hinting to the importance of the social construction of ageing in addition to its biological dimension. Researchers and policy makers are encouraged to give more attention to layperson views on ageing.

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“…All analyses were controlled for sociodemographic variables, i.e. gender (male = 1, female = 2), education (number of years at school and university), and–given that health and cognition are both meaningfully related to personality [51, 52] and ATOA (e.g., [12, 10])–also for baseline objective and subjective health status and cognitive abilities at T1. We restricted the inclusion of covariates to those variables assessed at T1 due to reasons of parsimony and the inconsistent measurement of covariates at different assessment waves.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The interplay of personality and attitudes toward own aging across two decades of later life

2019

Self Cite

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Big Five personality traits are assumed to be linked with attitudes toward own aging. Since both constructs have central importance for the aging process, it is surprising that to our knowledge no study so far comprehensively addressed their mutual connection over time. We used data from the ILSE study, a longitudinal study capturing personality and attitudes toward own aging at four measurement occasions, spanning 20 years and including two participant cohorts in midlife (n = 501; born 1950–52) and later life (n = 500; born 1930–32). Dual latent change score models showed that personality was longitudinally related to change in attitudes toward own aging: Lower Neuroticism, higher Conscientiousness, and higher Openness predicted more positive attitudes, whereas the direction of the effect for Extraversion varied by time. Furthermore, the role of personality seems to be confined to certain sensitive periods in midlife and early old age. Contrary to our expectations, attitudes toward own aging had only marginal longitudinal impact on the Big Five. Our results shed light on the developmental co-dynamics of personality and subjective perceptions of aging across the second half of the lifespan.

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The Role of Attitude Toward Own Aging for Fluid and Crystallized Functioning: 12-Year Evidence From the ILSE Study

Cited by 40 publications

References 34 publications

The uniqueness of subjective ageing: convergent and discriminant validity

The uniqueness of subjective ageing: convergent and discriminant validity

Forever young? An analysis of the factors influencing perceptions of ageing

The interplay of personality and attitudes toward own aging across two decades of later life

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