Ageing and the body: one African perspective

Abstract

How do non-Western societies envisage the relationship between the body and ageing? The present work aimed to shed light on this question by exploring how adult men and women of different ages living in Dakar, Senegal, view their bodies. A quantitative methodology was selected, and this study was carried out on a sample of 1,000 dwellers of the Senegalese capital, aged 20 and older. This sample was constructed using the quota method in order to strive for representativeness. Results indicate that appearance was highly important for Senegalese women and men, and for younger and older adults alike. As in Western cultures, beauty and youth were strongly connected. The large majority of Senegalese women and men were satisfied with their looks across the lifespan. However, older women were slightly less satisfied, consistent with the double standard hypothesis. Little discrepancy was found between felt age and chronological age throughout the entire lifecourse, arguing against an ageless self hypothesis in this African population. The mask of ageing hypothesis was also rejected, as men's and women's identification with their body did not diminish significantly across age. These observations from an African perspective call for greater attention to the ageing process in non-Western societies in order to challenge hypotheses developed in Western societies and understand more broadly the role of culture.

Feeling Younger in Rural Burkina Faso: Exploring the Role of Subjective Age in the Light of Previous Research From High-Income Countries

“…While their results were compatible with the idea of a (culturally) variable attractor age , such a distinct pattern was not observable in our sample from Nouna, questioning the cross-cultural validity of this concept in its original form. Furthermore, our findings support data by Macia et al (2019) who presented similar results, but without explicitly referring to the idea of an attractor age .…”

“…First, following previous studies conducted in Africa ( Macia et al, 2019 ) as well as meta-analytical work ( Pinquart & Wahl, 2021 ), we hypothesize that the absolute discrepancy between felt age and chronological age, across the span of chronological age, will be less pronounced than in the often-cited study by Rubin and Berntsen (2006) . Building on the idea of an attractor age , we likewise expect that this absolute discrepancy will be higher with increasing chronological age.…”

“…They found that 28% felt younger, 69% felt the same age, and 3% felt older. Still, 80% of the sample claimed to be “old.” Further research conducted by Macia et al (2019) in Dakar, Senegal on a representative sample of 1,000 residents (≥20 years old) found that on average participants only felt about 1 year younger. Similarly, only 18% felt younger than they were; about 6% felt older; while the vast majority (76%) reported a felt age that matched their chronological age.…”

The Great Green Wall in Senegal: questioning the idea of acceleration through the conflicting temporalities of politics and nature among the Sahelian populations

“…Correlatively, the social structures of the Ferlo seem to be characterized by their stability despite political and administrative changes: family and professional cycles are durable, elders are respected, and identities seem stable (e.g., Macia et al 2019). The close association between Fulani identity and pastoralism is a well-established anthropological fact (e.g., Botte et al 1999).…”

Examining body appreciation in six countries: The impact of age and sociocultural pressure

“…However, research in African countries (and specifically in Nigeria for our purposes) is sparse compared to that focusing on Western and Eastern Asian populations [ 53 ]. Macia et al, [ 54 ] completed a study in Senegal which considered individual’s body image across the lifespan and reported that older Senegalese adults were less satisfied with their body than young adults. However, this study used only four questions adapted from a different study on Swedish adults [ 55 ], and reported a high degree of appearance satisfaction, even among the ‘less satisfied’ older age groups.…”