Recalling self-disruptive events and maintaining self-continuity in adulthood.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Gerontology
• Life Story Research

Background:

• Older adults generally report a higher sense of self-continuity compared to younger individuals.
• Understanding the narrative mechanisms underlying this age-related difference is crucial for developmental psychology.
• Life story research provides a lens to examine how personal narratives shape self-perception across the lifespan.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate age differences in narrating self-disruptive life events, focusing on stability, change, and event connections.
• To determine if narrative strategies in recounting disruptive events mediate the relationship between age and self-continuity.
• To explore how older adults maintain self-continuity through their life stories.

Main Methods:

• Participants (N=185) completed a self-continuity measure.
• Participants orally recounted two non-disruptive and two self-disruptive life events.
• Narratives underwent reliable content analysis focusing on stability, change, and event-event connections.

Main Results:

• All participants narrated more stability in self-disruptive events than non-disruptive ones.
• Older adults, compared to younger adults, narrated less change and more event-event connections for self-disruptive events.
• Older adults' greater sense of self-continuity was partially mediated by narrating more event-event connections in self-disruptive narratives.

Conclusions:

• Older adults' narrative strategies, particularly emphasizing event connections during disruptive experiences, contribute to their enhanced self-continuity.
• Narrating stability in disruptive events is directly linked to self-continuity, irrespective of age.
• Life story perspectives suggest older adults integrate challenging events into a broader biographical context, reinforcing self-continuity.