Trajectories Of Aging: Imagined Pathways In Later Life

Furstenberg, Anne-Linda

doi:10.2190/3h62-78vr-6d9d-plmh

Cited by 32 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…In fact, an individual's felt age could be considered as an assessment of his or her personal condition compared to social representations of age and aging specific to the context in which he or she lives. These factors interact to form one's personal aging model (Furstenberg 2002;Montepare, 2009). In western society where aging is associated with health problems, older persons in good health-who do not display the physical characteristics of old age-thus assume a younger age identity.…”

Section: Age Identity and Its Dimensionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age identity, self-rated health, and life satisfaction among older adults in Dakar, Senegal

et al. 2012

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The objectives of this quantitative study were to (1) ascertain to what extent older adults aged 50 and above feel and desire to be younger than their age, and classify themselves as young versus old; (2) compare these patterns with those found among other cross-cultural populations; and (3) assess the extent to which self-rated health and life satisfaction predict age identities. This study was carried out on a sample of 500 dwellers of the Senegalese capital aged 50 and older. This sample was constructed using the quota method to strive for representativeness. Most of the respondents wanted to be younger than their chronological age (51.8 %), but only 27.8 % felt younger than they were. Moreover, 80 % of the sample claimed to be old. Self-rated health predicted felt age and the feeling of being old. Furthermore, the less-satisfied Dakar residents were with their life, the younger they wanted to be. We first discuss our results in a comparative perspective focused on how orientations toward individualism and collectivism could be related to age identity, and on demographic characteristics of the Senegalese population-where life expectancy is 59.3 years old. We then analyze the relevance of age identity dimensions as indicators of successful aging in Dakar.

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Section: Age Identity and Its Dimensionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age identity, self-rated health, and life satisfaction among older adults in Dakar, Senegal

et al. 2012

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“…Feeling older has also been associated with more pessimistic attitudes about aging as it relates to thinking, sharpness, and memory [16]. Being in good health has been found to reduce anticipation of physical and social loss [17], increase the tendency to frame older age as a time of continuous growth, lesser physical decline and social loss [18], and decrease negativity toward the future and physical change, including bodily aging [19,20]. Symptoms of depression have negatively affected attitudes toward psychosocial growth [21] as well as age identity, life satisfaction ratings, and affect [22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes to aging mediate the relationship between older peoples’ subjective health and quality of life in 20 countries

Low

Molzahn

Schopflocher

2013

Health Qual Life Outcomes

103

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BackgroundWith ever-increasing life expectancy globally, it is imperative to build knowledge of how older peoples’ views of their own aging, considering their health-related circumstances, affect quality of life for practitioners and policy-makers alike. Based on our literature review, we wanted to determine whether older adults’ attitudes toward their own aging would partly mediate the effect of their health satisfaction ratings upon their quality of life. Furthermore, would these attitudes mediate the relationship between health satisfaction and quality of life in the same way when we account for older adults’ country of origin, and their age and gender?MethodsThis was a secondary analysis of cross-sectional survey data collected in 20 countries taking part in the 2003 WHOQOL-OLD Field study. The study sample consisted of 4593 adults whom were, on average, 72.10 years of age (range = 60 to 100 years of age); 42.8% were female. The WHOQOL-BREF measured quality of life and health satisfaction. The Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire measured participants’ attitudes toward physical change, psychosocial loss, and psychological growth. All items in both questionnaires were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. Questionnaire responses were analyzed using multilevel modeling and path analysis.ResultsAll three attitudes to aging partly mediated the relationship between health satisfaction and physical, psychological, social, environmental, and global quality of life. These partial mediations manifested in the same way across all 20 country samples, regardless of age or gender. Attitudes toward physical change were the strongest mediator of health satisfaction upon global and domain-specific quality of life, followed by psychosocial loss and psychosocial growth.ConclusionsOur study is the first cross-cultural study with a large sample to show that quality of life judgements, between 60 to 100 years of age, are a product of older men’s and women’s perceptions of health-related circumstances, and attitudes toward physical and psychosocial aspects of the aging self. A prospective study of the linkages between older peoples’ subjective views of health and attitudes toward the aging self over time using multiple subjective measures of health is warranted. Understanding these linkages may help practitioners and policy makers consider strategies to enhance quality of life.

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“…Changes in health and an increase in functional limitations typically cause changes in subjective age in late adulthood (Braman, 2003;Furstenberg, 1989Furstenberg, , 2002Sherman, 1994). However, maintenance of a youthful age identity in spite of worsening health and functional limitations may also occur because people adapt to age changes (Baltes & Baltes, 1990;Brandtstädter, 2002).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Change in Subjective Age among Older People over an Eight-Year Follow-Up: ‘Getting Older and Feeling Younger?’

Uotinen

Rantanen

Suutama

et al. 2006

Experimental Aging Research

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The purpose of this prospective study was to describe changes in subjective age over an 8-year period among community-dwelling people aged 65 to 84 years in Finland. At the baseline 1155 respondents met study criteria and 451 of these participated in the follow-up study. Participants described in years the age they felt themselves to be (feel age) and their preferred age (ideal age). Discrepancy scores relative to chronological age were calculated for feel age and ideal age. No significant mean-level changes were observed in the age discrepancy scores over the 8-year time frame. The baseline discrepancy between chronological and feel age remained constant among 48% of the participants, with 26% reporting a younger and 26% an older feel age. Similar patterns were observed in the discrepancy between chronological age and ideal age. The findings point both to stability and to individual variability in feel and preferred age identification over time in older adults.

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Trajectories Of Aging: Imagined Pathways In Later Life

Cited by 32 publications

References 48 publications

Age identity, self-rated health, and life satisfaction among older adults in Dakar, Senegal

Age identity, self-rated health, and life satisfaction among older adults in Dakar, Senegal

Attitudes to aging mediate the relationship between older peoples’ subjective health and quality of life in 20 countries

Change in Subjective Age among Older People over an Eight-Year Follow-Up: ‘Getting Older and Feeling Younger?’

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