Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T06:54:53.915Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Positive attitudes on aging: a life course view

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2014

Quincy M. Samus*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bayview, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA Email: qmiles@jhmi.edu

Extract

Chosen as paper of the month in this issue of International Psychogeriatrics, Shenkin and colleagues (2014) tackle the complex but important issue of how older adults perceive the experience of aging and the life course factors that relate to these perceptions and attitudes. Taking advantage of data from a large, well-characterized group of healthy, community-living older persons in the United Kingdom (the Lothian Birth Cohort of 1963; Deary et al., 2007), the authors conclude that in spite of common tendencies in the medical literature, the popular press, or cultural stereotypes to focus on negative aspects of aging, older persons themselves generally report positive attitudes toward aging. Taking a life course approach, the authors conclude that the most significant and pervasive correlates associated with positive attitudes of aging across three assessed domains (psychosocial loss, physical change, and psychological growth) are personality traits. In contrast, affective disturbances (depression/anxiety) are associated with more negative attitudes to aging. The authors also identify other potentially modifiable factors associated with attitudes to aging, including physical disability, social class, or living circumstances. The authors point out several limitations of this work, including the self-selected sample limiting generalizability; psychometric and conceptual drawbacks of the Attitudes on Aging Questionnaire; and variance not explained by a priori clinically focused predictor variables.

Type
Commentary paper of the month
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bryant, C., Bei, B., Gilson, K., Komiti, A., Jackson, H. and Judd, F. (2012). The relationship between attitudes to aging and physical and mental health in older adults. International Psychogeriatrics, 24, 16741683. doi:10.1017/S1041610212000774.Google Scholar
Deary, I. J. et al. (2007). The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936: a study to examine influences on cognitive ageing from age 11 to age 70 and beyond. BMC Geriatrics 7, 28. doi:10.1186/1471-2318-7-28.Google Scholar
Levy, B. (2003). Mind matters: cognitive and physical effects of aging self-stereotypes. Journals of Gerontology B: Psychological and Social Sciences, 58, 203211.Google Scholar
Quinn, K. M., Laidlaw, K. and Murray, L. K. (2009). Older peoples’ attitudes to mental illness. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 16, 3345.Google Scholar
Shenkin, S. D., Laidlaw, K., Allerhand, M., Mead, G. E., Starr, J. M. and Deary, I. J. (2014). Life course influences of physical and cognitive function and personality on Attitudes to Aging in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936. International Psychogeriatrics.Google Scholar