IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eujoag/v19y2022i3d10.1007_s10433-021-00681-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • 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)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Dikla Segel-Karpas & Amit Shrira & Ella Cohn-Schwartz & Ehud Bodner, 2022. "Daily fluctuations in subjective age and depressive symptoms: the roles of attitudes to ageing and chronological age," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 741-751, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:19:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s10433-021-00681-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10433-021-00681-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10433-021-00681-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10433-021-00681-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Racheli-Lital Gvili & Ehud Bodner, 2021. "Ageist Attitudes Are Associated with Will-to-Live and Moderated by Age, Medical Conditions and Attitudes toward Aging," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-13, June.
    2. Ehud Bodner & Amit Shrira & Yaakov Hoffman & Yoav S Bergman & Shevaun Neupert, 2021. "Day-to-Day Variability in Subjective Age and Ageist Attitudes and Their Association With Depressive Symptoms [Dynamic, not stable: Daily variations in subjective age bias and age group identificati," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 76(5), pages 836-844.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jin Wang & Jiabin Yu & Xiaoguang Zhao, 2022. "Is Subjective Age Associated with Physical Fitness in Community-Dwelling Older Adults?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-10, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:19:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s10433-021-00681-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.