Maintaining a young self-concept: Feeling young or shifting age thresholds?

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Gerontology
• Sociology

Background:

• Negative societal views on aging prompt individuals to maintain a youthful self-concept.
• Dual-process theory explains coping with aging through assimilation (feeling younger) and accommodation (shifting old age threshold).

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate how assimilative and accommodative coping strategies are used across different life domains.
• Examine if individuals prioritize maintaining a young self-concept in personally important life domains.
• Test age-related differences in using assimilation versus accommodation for self-concept maintenance.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study of 768 participants aged 30-80 years.
• Multilevel analysis examining life domains nested within individuals.
• Assessed domain importance, self-perceived age, and old age threshold.

Main Results:

• Individuals selectively protected a young self-concept in personally important life domains.
• Younger adults used assimilation (feeling younger) more in self-relevant domains.
• Older adults used accommodation (shifting old age threshold) more in self-relevant domains.

Conclusions:

• Both assimilation and accommodation serve to protect self-concept and distance from stigmatized aging identity.
• Findings highlight societal idealization of youth and age-related self-concept regulation strategies.
• Selective self-concept maintenance is domain-specific and influenced by perceived importance and age.