Own aging: future time perspectives and scenarios perceived by females employed in old age care

This study focuses on anticipations of own aging, and the process of adaptation to aging across the life span. Future time perspectives and aging scenarios were investigated in 276 Danish females employed in old age care (aged 22 to 63 years), by use of questionnaires. Age-related differences were found regarding how far ahead subjects indicated to plan their future, increasing from about two years in subjects in their twenties and stabilizing at about ten years in older subjects. Datings of events that first initiated thinking of one's own aging increased with the age of the subjects, and some age-related patterns in the content of recalled events were found. A developmental mechanism involving reinterpretation of essential elements of aging is suggested as an explanation for these findings. A preponderance of positive scenarios suggests that optimistic anticipations of own aging may coexist with exposure to negative aspects of aging due to working experiences with disabled old people.