Awareness of Age-Related Changes Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Longitudinal Trajectories, and the Role of Age Stereotypes and Personality Traits

Abstract

Awareness of Age-Related Change (AARC) describes to what extent people become aware of changes which they attribute to getting older. So far little is known regarding how different AARC dimensions change over time, to what extent these changes in different domains of AARC gains and losses are interrelated, and which predictors account for inter-individual differences in within-person longitudinal trajectories. Specifically, the extent to which individuals perceive age-related gains and losses might be shaped by their chronological age, their personality as well as by their general views on aging (i.e., their age stereotypes). We investigated changes in global and domain-specific AARC gains and losses over about five years in a sample of originally N = 423 participants aged 40 to 98 years at baseline. We analyzed the role of personality traits and age stereotypes for levels and changes of AARC, taking into account participants' age at baseline and controlling for gender, education, and subjective health. Based on longitudinal multilevel regression models, we observed mean-level declines in most AARC gain domains. In contrast, perceived general AARC losses, as well as AARC losses in health and physical functioning, in cognitive functioning and in social-cognitive/socio-emotional functioning remained, on average, stable over time. Baseline scores on AARC gains (global scale) were higher among individuals with higher neuroticism, openness, conscientiousness and more positive age stereotypes. Additionally, the association of higher neuroticism with higher AARC gain scores was stronger among individuals with more positive age stereotypes. Higher neuroticism and more negative age stereotypes also predicted higher baseline scores on AARC losses (global scale). At the same time, higher neuroticism was associated with a steeper decrease in AARC loss perceptions over time. Most of the intercorrelations within the intercepts and within the intra-individual trajectories of the different AARC domains were positive, but small in size. Our findings show the importance of considering trajectories of age-related gains and losses in parallel and across multiple developmental domains when investigating the subjective perception of the aging process. They also suggest that personality traits and general age stereotypes are related with individual experiences of aging.

Awareness of age-related changes in Norwegian individuals 50+. Short form questionnaire validation

“…In support of this reasoning, a study using latent profile analyses (19) showed that while some middle-aged and older individuals report concurrent high levels of AARC losses and low levels of AARC gains, others report both high levels of AARC losses and high levels of AARC gains. Moreover, other empirical studies (5,36) have shown that levels of AARC gains are only minimally correlated to levels of AARC losses, suggesting that perceived gains are fairly independent from perceived losses. Another interesting finding was that there were statistically significant correlations between the ".…”

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

“…With regard to evidence on AARC, Kaspar et al (2022) found that AARC-gains decreased and AARC-losses increased as people moved across old-old age beyond 80 years. However, in a cohort of individuals aged 40 years and older, Wettstein et al (2022) observed a small increase in AARC-gains and stability in AARC-losses across 5 years. The observed stability in AARC-losses may be due to middle-aged and older adults having the capacity to flexibly adjust their goals (Brandtstädter & Rothermund, 2003).…”

“…So far, only Wettstein et al (2022) explored whether the change in levels of AARC-gains and AARC-losses differs across the five AARC behavioral domains. This study found that AARC-gains declined in all behavioral domains except for interpersonal relations, where it remained stable.…”

“…Indeed, whereas Sabatini, Siebert, et al (2022) found a statistically nonsignificant association between AARC-gains and AARC-losses, Dunsmore and Neupert (2022) and Wilton-Harding and Windsor (2022) found a small negative association ( r = −.15) between AARC-gains and AARC-losses, and Dutt, Wahl, and Rupprecht (2018) found a moderate positive association ( r = .32) between AARC-gains and AARC-losses. To the best of our knowledge, only Wettstein et al (2022) explored whether, over 5 years, change in AARC-gains was associated with change in AARC-losses. This study, in a sample of middle-aged and older adults, found only a small association between change in AARC-gains and in AARC-losses, suggesting that changes in these two dimensions were rather independent from each other.…”

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions lifting on the health of the elderly :evidence from a quasi- experiment

“…According to the stress vulnerability theory proposed by Lazarus, any social or life event can constitute a potential stressor, but whether the event actually impacts an individual's psychological and physical health depends on the individual's comprehensive assessment of the potential stress and their coping resources [21]. Previous studies also indicate that there are individual differences in the health of the elderly in the face of stress exposure events [22][23][24][25]. However, to date, no study has been able to quantitatively measure the speci c impact of the lifting of restrictions on the health of the elderly and their different groups.…”