[Guilt for perceiving oneself as a burden: A relevant variable associated with the psychological distress of older...

To analyze the relationship between guilt for perceiving oneself as a burden and negative self-perceptions of aging, perceived control and anxious and depressive symptomatology in older people without cognitive or functional limitations.

Participants were 351 community-dwelling people over 60 years without explicit cognitive or functional limitation. Indirect effet analysis were conducted that examined the indirect effect of negative self-perceptions of aging through 1) perceived control and anxious symptomatology and 2) perceived control and depressive symptomatology in guilt for perceiving oneself as a burden.

Both models showed an indirect relationship between negative self-perceptions of aging and guilt for perceiving oneself as a burden through 1) perceived control and anxious symptomatology and 2) perceived control and depressive symptomatology, explaining 26.37% of anxious symptomatology, 48.51% of depressive symptomatology and 13.73% and 14.44% of guilt for perceiving oneself as a burden, respectively.

The results obtained suggest that higher negative self-perceptions of aging is associated with a lower perception of control and greater psychological distress (anxiety and depression), and this process increases the feeling of guilt for perceiving oneself as burden to family members in older people without functional or cognitive limitations.