Awareness of age-related change (AARC): measurement, conceptual status, and role for promoting successful aging

Abstract

Recent renewed interest has arisen regarding the ways in which individuals experience the process of growing older, an area of research known as subjective aging. A growing body of research shows a consistent pattern of results in which subjective aging exerts wide-reaching and consequential influence on both physical functioning as well as psychological well-being in later life. Historically, research has relied on simplistic, unidimensional measures, that while quite predictive of developmental outcomes, are somewhat of a 'black box' in that it is not understood exactly what information people rely on to make them. Therefore, the construct awareness of age-related change (AARC) was developed to yield insight into the specific behavioral domains in which aging experiences are noticed. Given the need for such a construct in the literature, the manuscript in Chapter 2 focuses on the development of a reliable and valid assessment tool to measure awareness of age-related change (AARC). Not only is such a construct more representative of leading theories in adult development and aging, it is also vital for understanding how people experience aging in different life domains. Therefore, the manuscript in Chapter 3 will explore how AARC is similar to and distinct from existing subjective aging constructs, and also how it is related to important physical and psychological outcome variables. Chapter 4 then extends the current state of research regarding subjective aging, which has largely been observational in nature, and attends to the issues of intervention design: Given the mounting evidence of the importance of attitudinal variables of aging, Chapter 4 explores the following questions: 1) Can more realistic and positive attitudes toward aging be promoted through intervention? and 2) Does modifying attitudes have tangible effects on health behavior promotion?