Evidence is accumulating on the effects of subjective aging-that is, how individuals perceive their own aging process-on health and survival in later life. The goal of this article is to synthesize findings of existing longitudinal studies through a meta-analysis. A systematic search in PsycInfo, Web of Science, Scopus, and Pubmed resulted in 19 longitudinal studies reporting effects of subjective aging on health, health behaviors, and longevity. The authors combine the outcomes reported in these studies using a random effects meta-analysis, assuming that there would be differences in effect sizes across studies. The meta-analysis resulted in an overall significant effect of subjective aging (likelihood ratio = 1.429; 95% confidence interval = 1.273-1.604; p < .001). The analyses revealed heterogeneity, with stronger effects for studies with a shorter period of follow-up, for studies of health versus survival, for studies with younger participants (average age of the studies varies between 57 and 85 years with a median of 63 years), and for studies in welfare systems where state provisions of welfare are minimal. However, effects did not vary either across different operationalizations of subjective aging or by study quality. Subjective aging has a small significant effect on health, health behaviors, and survival. Further theoretical conceptualizations and empirical studies are needed to determine how subjective aging contributes to health and survival.

Humans are able to reflect on and interpret their own aging. Thus, as individuals grow older, calendar age may become increasingly a subjective variable. This theoretical paper proposes the concept of Awareness of Aging (AoA) as a superordinate construct that can serve an integrative function in developmental research on subjective aging. It is argued that the AoA construct can incorporate the theoretical components of other existing concepts by acknowledging that judgments of subjective aging tend to be made on an awareness continuum ranging from pre-conscious/implicit to conscious/explicit. We also argue that processes of AoA are inherently self-related processes and that AoA is a particular aspect of self-awareness that results in specific aging-related self-knowledge. Over time, aging individuals incorporate this self-knowledge into their self-concept and personal identity. We provide theoretical evidence showing that although all major theories of adult development and aging draw on phenomena related to AoA, the explicit incorporation of aging-related awareness processes has been missing. We also provide an overarching framework to illustrate in a heuristic way how AoA in combination and interaction with other influences affects developmental outcomes. Finally, we argue that attention to AoA-related processes has a number of societal and applied implications and thereby addresses issues of applied developmental psychology.

Social activities differentially affect different facets of well-being. These associations change with age. In older adults, the effects of social activities with friends may become more important and may act as a buffer against negative effects of aging.

The Attitude Toward Own Aging Subscale (ATOA) is a frequently used measure of subjective aging. Although ATOA in midlife might assume a preparatory role for psychosocial adjustment in old age, research has been dominated by a focus on older adults. To enable a comparison of developmental trajectories of ATOA between middle-aged and young-old adults, we tested measurement invariance between age groups and over a 12-year study period. In addition, personality variables, health dimensions, and sociodemographic variables were investigated as predictors of developmental trajectories of ATOA. Data came from the Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study of Adult Development (ILSE) with 2 birth cohorts (1930-1932: n = 500; 1950-1952: n = 501) followed over 12 years. Data analyses were conducted with confirmatory factor analysis for ordered-categorical variables and latent growth models. Support for the assumption of partial measurement invariance of ATOA was found in each age group, but not between age groups. Latent growth models revealed a steady decline in ATOA for young-old individuals, whereas ATOA trajectories in midlife were characterized by interindividual variation. Health variables predicted level of ATOA in the young-old. In midlife ATOA were shaped by a variety of factors. Future studies should be conducted with an awareness of differential item functioning of the ATOA scale across age groups. Furthermore, our results point to a greater modifiability of aging attitudes in middle-aged compared with young-old individuals, thus highlighting the importance of the midlife years in shaping developmental trajectories into old age.

These findings support the need for conceptualizing SA across different behavioral domains and for distinguishing between positive and negative SA.

Our results demonstrate the benefits of an open-ended approach to a multidimensional understanding of SAEs. Content-related, social-cognitive and social-emotional changes more than functional age-related changes were most important for well-being.

Numerous studies have emphasized a stable relationship between subjective age and health. However, few longitudinal studies exist and these have normally tested only one causal pathway. The present study investigated the direction of effects between subjective age and different health dimensions in 3,038 participants of the German Ageing Survey, aged 40 years and older. Cross-sectionally, subjective age correlated with all health dimensions studied. Longitudinally, subjective age predicted physical, mental, and self-rated health, whereas the reverse effect was found only for self-rated health. Subjective age thus seems to be an important resource for preserving health in the second half of life.

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