Future self-views of aging and social activities: Domain-specific bidirectional links across adulthood

How people anticipate their own aging may influence whether and how they stay socially engaged in later life. This study examined whether future self-views of aging predict self-reported social activities over time and whether social activities, in turn, shape individuals' future self-views of aging. Data were drawn from 459 German adults aged 30-80 years, assessed at three time points over a 10-year period. Participants reported their future self-views of aging in three social domains-family, friendship, and formal engagement-as well as their weekly hours spent in domain-matched social activities. We applied random-intercept cross-lagged panel models to test within-person, bidirectional associations and conducted age-group comparisons. More positive future self-views of aging predicted increases in corresponding social activities over time-but not vice versa. In age-group analyses, an association between family-related future self-views of aging and later family activities emerged specifically among older adults. These associations remained when adjusting for subjective health, age, neuroticism, extraversion, and partnership status. Expectations about aging and formal engagement (e.g., clubs or volunteering) predicted behavior only among participants without a partner. Overall, the findings suggest that how individuals envision their aging selves is prospectively related to their social engagement, with associations differing by age and relational domain. Future self-views of aging may represent one motivational pathway through which adults maintain social involvement, particularly in developmentally salient domains or when close relational resources are limited. Interventions that foster more positive expectations about one's own aging may help support sustained social participation across adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).