Daily fluctuations in subjective age and depressive symptoms: the roles of attitudes to ageing and chronological age

Dikla Segel-Karpas (), Amit Shrira, Ella Cohn-Schwartz and Ehud Bodner
Additional contact information
Dikla Segel-Karpas: University of Haifa
Amit Shrira: Bar-Ilan University
Ella Cohn-Schwartz: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Ehud Bodner: Bar-Ilan University

European Journal of Ageing, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, No 34, 751 pages

Abstract: Abstract Studies indicate that both subjective age—individuals’ perception of their own age as older or younger than their chronological age, and attitudes to ageing are related to physical and mental health. Less is known about the possible dual effect of these two constructs of subjective views of ageing. In the current study, 334 participants (aged 30–90, M = 58.15) reported their daily subjective age and mental health along 14 consecutive days. Attitudes to ageing were measured at baseline. Results indicated that daily variation in subjective age was related to daily variation in depressive symptoms, such that people experienced more depressive symptoms at days they felt older. Furthermore, we found that attitudes to ageing (perceptions of losses, physical change, and psychological growth) moderated this relationship. The covariation between daily subjective age and daily depressive symptoms was stronger when attitudes to ageing were less favorable (e.g., high perceptions of losses and low psychological growth). The moderating effect of losses was especially prominent among older participants. This indicates that attitudes to ageing moderate the toll that feeling old takes on mental health, especially in older age. The results also emphasize the need to understand how different subjective views on ageing, measured in different time frames, operate interactively to shape individual’s daily experiences.

Keywords: Attitudes to ageing; Subjective age; Mental health; Diary study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10433-021-00681-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:19:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s10433-021-00681-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... iences/journal/10433

DOI: 10.1007/s10433-021-00681-z

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Ageing is currently edited by Marja Aartsen, Susanne Iwarsson and Prof. Dr. Matthias Kliegel

More articles in European Journal of Ageing from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().