Essentialist Beliefs About Aging Moderate the Link between Physical Functioning and Subjective Well-Being in a...

This study tests the moderating role of essentialist beliefs about aging (i.e., perceptions of aging as a fixed versus malleable process) in the relationship between physical functioning and subjective well-being distinguishing between (a) overall quality of life and (b) health satisfaction among older adults in clinical care. We propose that essentialist beliefs serve as adaptive, palliative cognitions that help maintain high subjective well-being despite health challenges.

Hospitalized multimorbid older adults in Germany (N = 102; 67-96 years) completed measures of essentialist beliefs about aging, quality of life and health satisfaction. Physical functioning was assessed using the Barthel-Index. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses tested whether essentialist beliefs moderated the association between physical functioning and subjective well-being.

Essentialist beliefs significantly moderated the association between physical functioning and both indicators of subjective well-being. For quality of life, stronger essentialist beliefs were linked to more positive evaluations under poor physical functioning, whereas more flexible beliefs were associated with lower quality of life. In contrast, for health satisfaction, more flexible beliefs were associated with a stronger link between physical functioning and health satisfaction, while essentialist beliefs weakened this association. These effects were particularly evident at lower levels of physical functioning.

These findings highlight the domain-specific role of aging beliefs and suggest that essentialist beliefs may serve as a psychological buffer under conditions of physical decline, while more malleable beliefs promote condition-congruent evaluations of health.