Age identity, gender, and perceptions of decline: does feeling older lead to pessimistic dispositions about cognitive aging?
OBJECTIVE
Drawing on past studies of age identity, this article examined whether feeling older was associated with more pessimistic views about cognitive aging.


METHODS
Using respondents aged 55 years and older in the Midlife Development in the United States study, we estimated a series of linear regression models to predict people's dispositions toward their cognitive aging. The main comparison is whether the effects of age identity on cognitive aging differ for men and women.


RESULTS
Beyond the effects of chronological age, older age identities were associated with more pessimistic dispositions about cognitive aging. This relationship, however, was found only among women.


CONCLUSIONS
Age identity shapes cognitive aging dispositions, though the gendered nature of this relationship remains somewhat unclear. The findings give further evidence about the far-reaching implications of age identity for successful aging and suggest that future work can explicate how subjective aging processes may differ by gender.
Schafer
Markus H
MH
Center on Aging and the Life Course, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2114, USA. mhschafe@purdue.edu
Shippee
Tetyana P
TP
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D016387:Women's Health