An exploration of subjective age, actual age, age awareness, and engagement in everyday behaviors
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ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION
An exploration of subjective age, actual age, age awareness, and engagement in everyday behaviors Joann M. Montepare1
© Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract Considerable research has documented relationships between subjective age and consequential outcomes such as life satisfaction, daily stress, health, and even mortality. Less is known about associations between the age people perceive themselves to be and everyday behaviors that may serve as the paths to broader life outcomes. To begin to fill this gap, this study explored the frequency with which 196 US adults aged 55–87 years engaged in behaviors reflecting nine behavioral domains. Respondents also answered questions about their subjective age, age awareness, and actual age. Results showed that whereas actual age predicted engagement in some behaviors (e.g., retirement activities), subjective age predicted engagement in most others (e.g., personal, social, grooming, body-focused, trend activities), and age awareness predicted participation in yet others (e.g., medical activities). The present findings provide insights both about age-related everyday behaviors, and the ways that several perceptions of age are differentially linked to their occurrence. Keywords Subjective age · Age identification · Age attitudes People’s perceptions of their age have taken many forms, one of which is subjective age (Diehl et al. 2014). The construct of subjective age—which is the age people experience themselves to be—has been examined in different ways from various perspectives (Kastenbaum et al. 1972; Montepare 2009). For example, several different measures have been used, from measures of actual age estimates to scale responses, and from single items measures (e.g., what age do you feel) to more multidimensional measures (e.g., psychological, physical, social). As well, characterizations of subjective age have been investigated across diverse groups, including age groups ranging from adolescents to older adults, and cultural groups across the globe (e.g., USA, Germany, Senegal, Japan). Taken together, findings have shown an interesting and persistent pattern. Specifically, whereas younger individuals typically feel somewhat older than their age, individuals begin to feel younger than their age between Responsible editor: Matthias Kliegel. * Joann M. Montepare [email protected] 1
RoseMary B. Fuss Center for Research on Aging and Intergenerational Studies, Lasell University, 1844 Commonwealth Avenue, Newton, MA 02466, USA
20 and 30 years, with a younger discrepancy increasing with advancing age. In addition to this overall life span pattern, there is a good deal of variability along the age continuum as well as across time and circumstance (Barrett and Montepare 2015; Galambos et al. 2005; Hatta et al. 2010; Macia et al. 2012; Westerhof et al. 2003). Adding to this variability, psychological factors such as the extent to which individuals consider age to be a defining personal attribute—described as age awareness—have been implicated in the su
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