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Self-Perceptions of Aging: Do Subjective Age and Satisfaction With Aging Change During Old Age?

¹ Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
² Department of Psychology and Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Address correspondence to Anna Kleinspehn-Ammerlahn, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany. E-mail: kleinspehn{at}mpib-berlin.mpg.de

The present study examined time-related change in felt age, physical age, and satisfaction with aging in old age and covariates of this change. Using 6-year-longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study (age range = 70–104 years), we found that individuals' felt age remained on average about 13 years below their actual age over time, whereas they reported a decreasing discrepancy between physical and actual age and a decrease in aging satisfaction over time. After we controlled for level differences, a differential pattern of individual differences in change appeared for the three dimensions: Age contributed to a greater decline in aging satisfaction but an increase in the discrepancy of felt age. A higher number of illnesses at baseline attenuated change in felt age discrepancy. Future research on change of self-perceptions of aging will provide insight into mechanisms of resilience of the aging self in later life.

Key Words: Self-perception of aging • Subjective age • Age identity • Satisfaction with aging • Berlin Aging Study • Differential aging • Resilience of the older self